Beyond The Register, with Keenan Kok-Carlson

Beyond The Register
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I’m Keenan Kok-Carlson, a lifelong retail operator turned Senior Product Manager at Global Payments. I’ve lived every part of running a store, from opening the doors to fixing the systems that keep it alive. Beyond the Register shares the real stories behind small retail: inventory chaos, hiring struggles, vendor issues, burnout, and the wins that keep owners going. No fluff, just the truth about what it takes to run a shop today. This is Beyond the Register.

  1. 2d ago

    Trick or Treat? Why She Quit Healthcare to Sell Candy In NYC

    At the end of 2025, Cat Cirino kept telling everyone it was an insane time to start a business. Consumers were getting squeezed, SNAP was being cut, and a retail build-out cost about twice what it did a few years earlier. A few months later she was spending close to $45,000 on custom millwork and signing a lease on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. She calls herself personally fiscally conservative. This week Keenan sits down with Cat, founder of Candor, a candy shop in brownstone Brooklyn with 60-some bins of pick and mix and a shelf of gifts you won't find at the bodega. She spent about 15 years in nonprofit, consulting, and healthcare strategy before walking away from all of it. Since opening on March 31, the shop has done goodie bags for Google's fall retreat, worked New York Fashion Week, and filled orders for Etsy and Pinterest, all without a sales team. She ran a three-year pro forma before she ever looked at a space, and she's honest about what made the jump possible for her and what still keeps her up. With Halloween and the NYC Marathon both landing on her block this fall, she's about to find out how many thousands of trick-or-treat bags one candy shop can hand out. In this episode: - The "clickety clack job" crowd, and why so many people with desk jobs secretly want a shop of their own - How choosing not to have kids changed her tolerance for risk - Why she lined up a real estate agent, architect, and designer before signing a lease - What rent abatement actually means, and why she only got three months - Turning a former real estate office into a third space people want to rent for their birthdays - The millennial gray problem, and why the design investment paid off - How giftables took her average ticket from $7 or $8 up to $12 or $13 - The drink-accompaniment shelf that didn't sell the way she hoped - Candy bags going from $0.30 to $0.55, and the $5 card minimum that helps absorb it - Why fancy chocolate is mostly packaging, and why that's the point Subscribe to Beyond the Register for conversations with the owners and operators actually running independent retail. Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:12 Leaving healthcare for a candy shop 03:33 The clickety clack job crowd 06:41 Building the three-year pro forma 11:54 How not having kids raised her risk tolerance 16:08 Her order of operations before the lease 18:09 Why a commercial lease is like buying a house 23:39 Designing a third space 27:15 The millennial gray problem 33:16 How giftables raised the average ticket 39:08 The shelf that didn't sell 41:23 Tariffs, oil, and the $0.55 candy bag 46:27 Why candy is really packaging 47:43 Landing Google and Fashion Week 53:40 Where to find Cat Beyond the Register is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the retail point of sale system designed to help busy store owners track inventory, manage customers and take payments.

  2. Oct 20

    This Is How Boutiques Outlast Big Market Stores

    Christine Alcalay opened her first boutique in 2002 in an unheated shoebox space on Berkeley Place in Brooklyn, and the entire clothing rack fell down on opening day. Twenty-four years later she runs three stores in Park Slope: a women's multi-brand boutique, a men's multi-brand shop, and a boutique for her own label, made in small batches in New York City. She got there by making the moves most owners avoid. When stores on her block were closing, she signed a second lease. When COVID shut her doors, she raised money from neighbors to pay her team and sold her inventory over Instagram. In this episode she explains how a neighborhood boutique outlasts stores that will always win on price, and why she has never wanted to be a cool store. In this episode: - Why she grew while the rest of the block was cutting back, and the one phone call that landed her a second lease - What buying out her business partner of 13 years cost her, financially and mentally - The GoFundMe she ran in April 2020 to take care of her team - Selling a store's worth of inventory through Instagram stories and DMs during shutdown - How she explains a higher price tag to customers who can find something cheaper elsewhere - Buying for specific customers she knows by name, down to the shirt they wore last season - Opening price point items that turn a 16-year-old into a future customer Subscribe to Beyond the Register for conversations with the people who actually run stores. Watch on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:41 The shoulder seam lesson from her mom 05:31 From an unheated shoebox store to three shops 09:18 Growing while the block was shrinking 13:13 Buying out her partner of 13 years 15:22 The GoFundMe that paid her team 19:51 Selling everything on Instagram during shutdown 22:34 When a store becomes a neighborhood hub 25:05 Competing with stores that win on price 26:32 Explaining the price tag 30:19 Everyone wears many hats 37:20 Buying for a specific customer 41:33 When a customer says it's too expensive 45:57 Opening price points and future customers 47:41 Where to find her Beyond the Register is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the retail point of sale system designed to help busy store owners track inventory, manage customers and take payments.

  3. Oct 13

    How to Beat Big Box Stores (Without Being Cheaper) | Todd Barancik

    In March 2020, Todd Barancik watched close to 90% of his company's revenue disappear in three business days. His business delivered healthy snacks to offices, and the offices had just emptied out. A year later he was a regular at a tiny zero-waste pop-up in Chicago run by two Broadway actors. When they announced they were closing, he asked his wife what she thought about taking it over. Today The Unwaste Shop has two Chicago locations, and it runs on one of the hardest asks in retail: bring your own container, fill it, and pay by the ounce. Todd is upfront that he can't win on convenience and usually won't win on price, so he competes on how people feel when they walk in. In this episode he explains why every customer gets the same warm welcome no matter who they are, why he barely looks at resumes and hires for character instead, how he answers a customer who says it's cheaper somewhere else, and why a quick photo of a customer's dog can outperform a reel his team spent hours on. In this episode: - Losing close to 90% of his revenue in three days, and what came next - What he checked before buying a business in an industry he'd never worked in - Why he relaunched the online store from his kitchen table before he had a storefront - How a simple greeting at the door drives the whole business - Why he hires for character and barely looks at resumes - What he says when a customer finds it cheaper somewhere else - Pricing by the ounce so customers buy exactly what they need - How he opened store #2 by handing it to a partner who lives down the street Subscribe to Beyond the Register for conversations with the people who actually run stores. Watch on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:00 From office snacks to a zero-waste shop 03:51 Losing 90% of revenue in three days 05:13 The pop-up run by two Broadway actors 07:27 What he looked for before taking it over 10:09 The support system behind a new business 12:17 Why shoppers care what goes on their skin 14:17 Starting online from the kitchen table 17:16 Refilling is how things used to be 19:08 Winning on culture instead of convenience 23:01 When it's cheaper somewhere else 30:03 Why people go back to a restaurant with average food 31:57 "I can't teach you character" 34:21 Why he doesn't micromanage 37:03 Knowing what you're not good at 39:41 The dog photo that beat the reel 41:42 Opening store #2 in Beverly 44:57 What's next for The Unwaste Shop 48:30 Practice makes better 49:20 Where to find Todd Beyond the Register is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the retail point of sale system designed to help busy store owners track inventory, manage customers and take payments.

  4. Oct 6

    The Former Teacher Who Built a Profitable Store the Size of a Parking Space | Chaya Cohen Tamir

    Chaya Cohen Tamir spent 20 years as a teacher and school administrator before she opened a stationery store on Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn with $12 in the bank and furniture from Facebook Marketplace. The space is about 170 square feet and seven feet wide, roughly the footprint of a parking space. She gave herself one calendar year to make it work before going back to teaching. Not even two years in, the store is profitable, with a full-time staff and a manager. Her approach breaks most of the rules retail owners get taught. She'll spend 20 minutes helping someone choose a $4 pen, lets customers test almost everything on the shelves, prices within a dollar or two of what you'd pay online, and throws community nights where nobody has to buy a thing. In this episode she explains why those choices are the business model, and how small purchases add up to 80 to 90% of her sales. In this episode: - Why a 20-minute conversation over a $4 pen pays for itself - How she stays within a dollar or two of big box prices and still turns a profit - Her open pen-testing policy, and why damaged product barely registers next to the traffic it brings in - Splitting class tickets 50/50 with neighboring businesses to fill their slow nights - How she decides what earns a spot on the shelf in a store this small - Why she refuses to upsell, and the customers she's happy to send somewhere else - Whether to move into a bigger space or stay the neighborhood shopkeeper Subscribe to Beyond the Register for conversations with the people who actually run stores. Watch on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:00 The customer who tried a dozen pens 02:28 A teacher with no business background 03:37 Missing the neighborhood stores she grew up with 04:59 "No one told me that's not how money is made" 06:20 Profitable before year two 07:42 Classes, events, and building community 09:06 Splitting classes 50/50 with neighboring businesses 11:05 What buying shoes used to feel like 12:36 Kids paying with allowance money 13:33 Pricing within a dollar of big box stores 15:02 The real cost of letting customers test everything 20:06 One year to make it work or go back to teaching 21:33 Why pen and paper calms the mind 22:38 80 to 90% of sales from small purchases 23:51 Curating a store seven feet wide 33:34 Why you hate writing 37:24 What's next: a bigger space or staying small 43:20 Where to find her Beyond the Register is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the retail point of sale system designed to help busy store owners track inventory, manage customers and take payments.

  5. Sep 29

    How She Got a Brooklyn Storefront With No Capital | Lior Donskoy

    In 2018 Lior Donskoy walked past an empty burger shop in Brooklyn, found the owner, and talked him into handing over the keys. She cleared out the old signage, put up posters, and ran a pop-up with a group of designers days before leaving for Burning Man. There was no name on it and no plan for what it would become. That was not luck. For years her method was the same: photograph the license number on an empty storefront, call the landlord, and ask why they were happy to let the space sit there making nothing. She did it over and over, through one-day markets, weekend pop-ups, and three months running another brand's Williamsburg store, until she signed her own lease at 86 Dobbin and opened with 13 brands on the floor. Today that store is Original Story, a permanent home for small designers who mostly cannot afford one alone. Lior talks with Keenan about the economics of pop-ups versus a lease, how she decides which brands come in and where they sit, and why she thinks a one-day show is usually a waste of everyone's time. It is a practical episode for anyone looking at a small space and assuming it is out of reach. In this episode: - The cold-call script she used on landlords with empty storefronts - Why a one-day pop-up costs the same work as a week and returns less - What three months in someone else's store taught her that pop-ups never could - The Covid shutdown that turned into the idea for Original Story - How a brand actually gets accepted, and why too many jewelry lines means no - Placing brands so 13 labels read as one store instead of a market - Made-to-order pricing, and the bride who came back for a wedding dress - Why her sewers are on the front page of her website instead of her - What she is building next: a November market, a site, and a shared studio Subscribe for more conversations with the operators actually running the store. Beyond the Register is available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Beyond the Register is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the retail point of sale system designed to help busy store owners track inventory, manage customers and take payments. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:44 The empty burger shop in 2018 02:28 Photographing license numbers and calling landlords 04:03 Realizing she did not want to do it alone 05:01 How long a pop-up should actually run 06:40 Taking over the Designer Collab store 07:11 The holiday market and the frozen balloons 08:35 Pitching the owner on a collaboration 10:34 What a permanent space teaches that a pop-up cannot 13:12 Knowing she needed her own home 14:23 The Covid shutdown that became Original Story 16:12 Why it did not end up in Soho 18:48 Sending a customer home with a memory 19:58 Luxury flagships and the Louis Vuitton café 23:42 How a brand gets into the store 26:29 Thirteen brands and one very large family 30:39 Pricing, made to order, and the wedding dress 33:27 Burning Man at 21 34:34 Why her sewers are on the website instead of her 39:52 Fashion Week, the November market, and the website 42:16 The shared studio she is building next 44:44 Listen to your gut 45:42 Where to find Original Story

  6. Sep 22

    → She Bought the Store She Shopped At and Tripled Its Sales | Beth Rich

    Beth Rich was a customer at Mix It Up when the associates started asking why she didn't just buy the place. She told them she hadn't moved to Coeur d'Alene to work retail on the weekends. Six weeks after she finally texted the owner to ask what the store cost, she owned it. She was in her late 50s and had never run a cash register. This week Keenan sits down with Beth, owner of Mix It Up and Mix It Up Home in downtown Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a certified Main Street district with no chains on it. Eight years in, she has tripled sales, opened a second store, hosts around 125 events a year, and sells more gurgle pots than any retailer in the country. She came to it with 35 years of sales and marketing behind her and no retail experience at all. She is blunt about how she got in, and she says outright not to copy her. On her first day the previous owner sharpened a pencil, pulled out a printout of a blank Excel grid, and showed her how to handwrite a purchase order and fax it. Beth has spent the eight years since getting the paper out of the business, and she is just as direct about the number she'd inspect if she were buying a store today, which is not revenue. In this episode: - What she watched her mother do after being widowed at 47 with five kids, and why she calls it the kind of optimism that changes outcomes - The emotional trap of buying product you fell in love with, and where she draws the line between feeling and data - Standing at a stoplight asking Shopify why handbag sales were down, and what the answer turned out to be - Why profit margin, not sales volume, is the number she'd inspect before buying any store - The shopping bag conversation that cut a deeply unglamorous line item - Handwriting purchase orders and faxing them in 2018, and what replaced that - Why she refuses to fight Amazon on price, and the one thing big box can't copy - The three things she says make an independent store work - Hiring associates who don't need the paycheck, and the culture that came out of it - "Can I start a pile?", the five favorite words in her store Subscribe to Beyond the Register for conversations with the owners and operators actually running independent retail. Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:27 What her mother taught her about optimism 02:38 The yellow rotary phone, and who took charge 04:40 Buying her first store in her late 50s 04:55 The emotion built into buying retail product 06:07 Knowledge is power, and the analytics retailers never used to have 06:48 Asking Shopify at a stoplight why handbag sales dropped 09:36 The accidental retailer 10:47 "Why don't you just buy Mix It Up?" 11:42 Money, money, and money 12:23 Six weeks from a text to closing on the business 13:09 What she'd inspect now: profit margin over revenue 13:51 The shopping bag call that cut her costs 17:21 The handwritten purchase order, in 2018 19:06 The plastic tub of paper under the desk 19:47 Getting the paper out of the business 22:44 Time is money 27:15 Competing with Target, Walmart, and Amazon 28:26 Why she won't fight a price war 28:45 The three things that make an independent store 33:00 Hiring people who don't need the job 42:34 Training storytellers instead of salespeople 44:18 The gurgle pot 47:23 "Can I start a pile?" 56:16 Where to find Mix It Up Beyond the Register is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the retail point of sale system designed to help busy store owners track inventory, manage customers and take payments.

  7. Sep 9

    A Masterclass in Scaling a Brewery to Multiple Locations in NYC | Tara Hankinson and LeAnn Darland @ TALEA

    Tara Hankinson and LeAnn Darland met at a beer e-commerce startup in 2018, filed an LLC three months later after three bottles of wine and a session on Rocket Lawyer, and signed the lease on their Williamsburg brewery in November 2019. Then the pandemic hit, and everything else did too. 5 years later: TALEA Beer Co. runs five taprooms across Brooklyn and Manhattan with a sixth opening on the Upper West Side, and distributes to more than 1,500 bars, restaurants, and retailers across New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. They did it while craft beer had its worst stretch in two decades, and they did it after investors told them, repeatedly, that women don't drink beer. This one goes deep on the operating decisions. The two co-CEOs walk through the actual math on the highest-margin thing they sell, what they got wrong on site selection and startup paperwork, how long it took them to admit they needed a general manager, and what running this has cost them personally. In this episode: - The real ingredient math behind a pint, and what that number leaves out - Why paying more rent for a better corner beats saving 15 grand on a side street - The cheap lawyer decision that took three years and a lot of money to fix - How they decided what to hand to GMs and what they still refuse to release - What they told the investors who pitched them "Skinny Girl for beer" - Running a business through the NICU, a funeral, and a stalled construction site - The tiebreaker rule they use when the two of them can't agree Subscribe for more conversations with the operators actually running the store. Beyond the Register is available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Beyond the Register is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the retail point of sale system designed to help busy store owners track inventory, manage customers and take payments. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:00 Meeting at a beer startup in 2018 02:56 Filing the LLC after three bottles of wine 04:17 From first meeting to five taprooms 06:27 The bar is the most profitable part of a restaurant 07:08 The real ingredient math on a pint 09:23 Taproom and distribution as two business lines 10:47 Why they keep a tighter footprint on purpose 13:08 The things they still refuse to hand off 16:22 Eighteen months to admit they needed a GM 17:28 The site selection mistake 19:14 The cheap lawyer decision that took three years to fix 21:04 Where the name TALEA came from 23:16 Community events as a cost center or a play 26:32 The data behind their business plan 27:25 The investors who said women don’t drink beer 27:50 “Skinny Girl for beer,” and why they passed 30:35 Why that model breaks financially 36:53 The season that tested everything 39:32 The hardest part of running the business 44:28 What the two of them actually argue about 47:19 Fifty-fifty from day one 51:38 Where to find TALEA

  8. Sep 1

    How to Build a Shop Where the Product Sells Itself | Sarah Maher @ Village & Vessel

    Sarah Maher spent a year selling crystals off picnic tables in her garage with no business plan, then signed a lease before she'd figured out how to run a store. Three years later, she owns Village and Vessel, a crystal and tarot shop in Oak Park, and she's still building through chaos: this year, the village tore up the entire street outside her door for construction that won't wrap until fall. Before crystals, Sarah taught and performed improv at Second City, iO, and ComedySports, then spent years working in tech. She walked away from a corporate job after hearing her boss snore through a client call and realizing that if he could get away with that, she could get away with anything. That belief carried her from garage sales to a storefront, and eventually into a hiring philosophy built entirely on energy over résumés. In this episode, Sarah breaks down how she built a business where the product does the selling, why she refuses to chase market prices even when collectors would happily pay more, and what she's learned about reading a room full of strangers looking for something they can't quite name. Highlights: - How a sleeping boss talked her out of a corporate career for good - Why she believes the crystals sell themselves, and what that means for how she runs her shop - The ethical pricing rule she uses instead of chasing the market - How she hires for energy fit instead of experience, and why that keeps her team from clashing - What she's noticed about which customers show up depending on who's working that day - Why the skeptics who walk in end up becoming her best customers - How grown men end up crying during her tarot readings, and what that says about masculinity today Follow Beyond the Register for more conversations with the owners actually running the register. Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Find Sarah at Village and Vessel in Oak Park, or on Instagram and TikTok @village_and_vessel. Beyond the Register is brought to you by Genius™ (Link globalpayments.com/genius) from Global Payments, the retail point of sale system designed to help busy store owners track inventory, manage customers and take payments. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:14 From Second City to selling crystals 02:07 The village tore up the street outside her door 02:37 Was this the hardest year? 05:43 Selling off picnic tables in the garage 06:11 Steward of the crystals, and why selling was the hard part 08:26 Improv is energy exchange, and so are crystals 09:18 Building the tarot cohort on the skeleton of an improv class 14:44 Signing the lease with no business plan 15:29 The year of asking every dumb question 17:23 The Fool's Journey, and the mistakes she'd redo 19:37 Why people are dying for an experience 20:49 The biggest compliment: this is my crystal shop 23:05 The other crystal shop in the back 25:14 Her ethical pricing rule 29:14 Trust your eyes 31:54 Hiring for vibes, not resumes 38:21 The boss who snored through a client call 41:13 How she handles the skeptics 43:05 Why the most resistant customers fall the hardest 45:53 Where to find Sarah and Village and Vessel

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About

I’m Keenan Kok-Carlson, a lifelong retail operator turned Senior Product Manager at Global Payments. I’ve lived every part of running a store, from opening the doors to fixing the systems that keep it alive. Beyond the Register shares the real stories behind small retail: inventory chaos, hiring struggles, vendor issues, burnout, and the wins that keep owners going. No fluff, just the truth about what it takes to run a shop today. This is Beyond the Register.

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