While in college a thousand years ago, I had a professor, who stated that if you could successfully get product distribution setup in Chicago, you could get your product distributed nationwide.
I am uncertain if he was correct all those years ago, yet I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He was brilliant, I had only one class with him and one in office discussion, yet a few years later he not only recognized me, but he also remembered who I was by name. My wife was as astounded as I was.
Yet if it was true in the late eights or early 90’s I do not believe it is true any longer.
The national brands play nasty and with increasing costs, most people don’t change buying patterns.
I don’t seem to see new products or brands, just variations of what existed.