are in-person channel checks for consumer companies useful

Recently had some free time and decided to visit the stores of some of the consumer companies I was covering. 

  • Went to a wholesaler and asked the sales rep and got exact numbers for how many specific shoe model per month were being sold for example (Nike Vomero vs Cloud Monster vs Hoka Clifton) and UGG demand after holiday boom

Was more of a thought experiment on a day off but was surprised how much the sales rep could tell me about the product. 

My question being, do others on this platform find it useful to look into ground-level/in-person channel checks to build any sort of meaningful conviction, rather than expert calls? Could see how it could be useful in some, but not all cases.

3 Comments
 

Need to adjust for sampling but yes, some companies do this for you 

 

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