Red Apple is a chain of 150 general merchandise stores located in small towns across Canada. These stores often represent the only place to buy shoes, snacks, and sundries, and Red Apple shoppers are both deeply loyal and highly vocal about what they want in a modern general store: clothes and products that reflect their tastes and needs.

Red Apple buyers are based in Toronto, Ontario. Which means they might not have the same sensibility as a customer located in Carlyle, Saskatchewan, a mere 2,510 kilometres away. To bring a better understanding of their customer to Red Apple’s head office, we embarked on a documentary listening tour that sent us to a handful of stores and communities.

The result was a half-hour documentary that brought Red Apple’s buyers closer to their customers, lovely people who embody the small-town charm of their brand. The documentary was screened to effusive response at Red Apple HQ, where buyers and employees expressed newfound understanding of their clientele. And now buy better products because of it.