Women of Airmart: Yen Pang the Aussie Tastemaker
Not everyone in the food world is a chef. The tastemakers, distributors, and curators who lead us to discover all the best eats play a vital role in every dining scene.
Yen Pang is an Australian foodie living in San Francisco. While she may not work in a kitchen, she knows a best-selling dish when she tastes one. Her friend and fellow Aussie, Jay Jay, sells Aussie pies and sausages in Los Angeles.
Together, they bring the comfort food from “Oz” to people all over California and beyond.
It all started about five years ago. As a longtime customer, Yen knew Jay Jay’s products were amazing, and she had promoted the pies to her network for many years. Getting just a small supply of the frozen pies shipped up to the Bay Area isn’t cost-effective, so Yen started out collecting group orders for her local friends and connections. Many people were trying the pies for the first time and didn’t want to order more than a few. But enough of these people banded together and Yen organized their orders. The first order totaled a whopping $600 worth of meat pies. Yen didn’t have the capacity to store or the capability to deliver the pies, so the customers came directly to her home to pick them up.
Yen continued to gather these group orders a few times a year when she was stocking her own freezer, but the demand was a bit overwhelming. When a friend introduced her to Airmart, it just made sense for her to move her pie distribution operation to the platform. Airmart streamlined the group ordering process and provided the missing logistics piece Yen needed to scale her distribution business. Yen was able to sell to her Bay Area community without the hefty fees of traditional delivery apps, on a platform that was much more user-friendly than Shopify.
Airmart has warehouses with freezer space and offers the Bay Area-wide delivery required to keep supplying Aussie meat pies to the new market Yen has created.
Now, Yen is able to offer her favorite product to the Bay Area at a reasonable price with much less effort. The pies sell with little promotion on Yen’s part. She’s only made three social media posts since setting up shop on Airmart, and yet, the pies keep selling out week after week.
But Yen makes it clear she isn’t in competition with Jay Jay. “I’m not doing this for the profit. It’s all about expanding the market.”
To find out what you’re missing, visit the Discover Bay Area Airmart store.
If you are a foodie with great taste but a tiny kitchen and you want to bring your favorite baked goods or other delicious products to the Bay Area, contact the Airmart team to get started.
About Us
Airmart is an online platform for discovering premium produce, meat, seafood, baked goods and prepared foods from local merchants. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to hear about new merchants, tasty recipes and special offers.
