And I've noticed something about Fred, too.

As soon as you start saying his name on the microphone up on stage, he starts to appear.

It's wild.

It's like a call.

Yeah, it's called him and he's like he just appears out of the crowd.

It's his bad signal, man.

That's how he does it. This is Burbin Pursuit, the official podcast of Bourbon, bringing to you the best in news, reviews, and interviews with people making the bourbon whiskey industry happen, and I'm one of your hosts, Kenny Coleman. You know, one of the topics that I love to dive into in the show is retail. I feel this is where rubber meets the road, because it's going to be a telling sign of a brand or a category if it's alive or dying. And for that reason, I'm excited to welcome back Chris Blanford on the show.

If you don't remember, he holds the title of Adult Beverage Field Specialist for Kroger.

Yeah, all those grocery stores that you see around Kentucky and his area and patch.

But they also have a liquor store attached to him. And he's right there on the front lines

of all these consumer trends, and he's

got some amazing insights into the changing landscape of bourbon. Plus, if you didn't know,

he's also the content development lead for the Bourbon and Culinary Stage at Bourbon Beyond

Music Festival. That's held right here in Louisville, and I'm sure you've heard us talk about that

time and time again on the show. We talk about the evolving consumer taste because

he does see that there is a trend back to buying more lower-proof whiskey, even though all we seem

to talk about is hazmat and very high-proof stuff, but that's not what the retail and the

scanners are saying. Plus, we also talk about some of those hilarious stories that maybe we've

experienced ourselves about those

high potency THC infused drinks that are starting to make waves across all of our newsfeeds. Chris

also shares some inspiring stuff about his personal journey of health transformation. It's a fantastic

parallel to his work. Plus you'll get a sneak peek into the exciting experiences waiting for everyone

...