The Produce Marketing Association has partnered with NACS to make the Eat Brighter! program available to convenience stores.
“Even if it’s the same people, it’s a different purchasing occasion,” said Kathy Means, vice president of demand creation and consumer affairs for the Produce Marketing Association. “We’re dashing to get a snack or a coffee or something. There’s a very different mindset from going in for weekly or biweekly stock-up shopping for cooking at home. When I go to the grocery store, I’m buying food to take home and use in the home, for the most part. When I go in a convenience store, it’s a very different mentality.
“So if we can get folks picking out apple slices or bananas or something like that instead of a candy bar or chips, that’s a plus,” Means said. “It helps parents make the healthy choice, the easy choice, if the little kids say, ‘I want what Elmo wants.’”
Jeff Lenard, vice president of strategic industry initiatives for NACS, noted that being able to use Sesame Street icons in point-of-sale material promoting fruits and vegetables is particularly powerful in the convenience store setting because people are in and out of the store so quickly.
“What most people do is they pick up the item they bought last time,” Lenard said. “It’s about routine because routine makes things faster. So how do you break that routine and tell somebody about new produce offers in stores, or that you even have a produce offer?
“We know that eye-catching cues work, and if you can put a well-known icon in front of people, they’re going to notice it more than 15 words talking about the product, because people are moving that fast,” Lenard said.
He noted that recent NACS surveys indicate produce is a growing part of the portfolio for many convenience stores. In 2017, 47% of respondents said they added to or enhanced their fresh fruit and vegetable offering, and 29% said the same regarding fresh-cut produce. In 2018, the numbers were 41% and 24%.
“It’s definitely a trend, and it’s definitely something that our work with United Fresh and with PMA, I think, can help accelerate and make us that destination,” Lenard said.
Another benefit of the partnership will be PMA gaining a better understanding of what convenience stores need from produce suppliers, such as how packaging can be optimized for the format.
The key element to keep in mind is the purchase occasion.
“Eighty percent of the items we sell are consumed within the hour,” Lenard said. “So it’s, ‘I’m thirsty now,’ ‘I’m hungry now’ — those are the needs that we fit.”
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