Takes The Bag

Over the weekend, I made a quick stop at CVS/pharmacy and came out with six items (three unplanned purchases) and two plastic bags -- and left thinking about the bags lasting 100,000 years in a landfill and chastising myself for not bringing in one of the cloth bags I store in the car. I have this regret every time I stop at CVS -- because I continually forget to bring the bags in until I'm at the checkout.

We recycle our plastic bags at the local Stop N Shop -- where I often forget to use my cloth bags and have repeatedly suggested they install  "Don't forget your bags" signs in the parking lot.  Still, when I remember to use my cloth bags, I feel good about this easy way to make a significant impact on the plastic my family generates.

Now, CVS/pharmacy has unveiled a GreenBag Tag program. As of today, a consumer who buys a Green BagTag -- made of corn-based material and 100-percent silicone, packaged in 100 percent recycled paper -- for 99 cents and uses it with an ExtraCare rewards card will earn $1 in ExtraCare Bucks on every fourth scan. ExtraCare Bucks can be used to purchase nearly anything in the store.

CVS' ExtraBucks tie-in is a great idea -- keeps customers coming back to use those bucks-off coupons. I wish the customer could use any cloth bag though.

I'd love to see more c-stores offer cloth bags and recycle plastic bags -- a convenient service for gasoline customers who are cleaning out the car --  or simply ask, "Do you want a bag?" before stuffing two or three items in a plastic bag. Those are all easy-to-execute details that would appeal to the average consumer who wants to be a little greener.

Meanwhile, after the holidays, WalMart is expected to test a program in a few stores in California that would charge customers 15 cents for plastic bags. The program should go a long way to help the chain reduce plastic bag waste 33 percent in the next three years. However,  I have a feeling it will be interpreted by many customers as a fee, rather than an incentive, just as many motorists felt about dual gas prices for cash or credit.

 -- Barbara Grondin Francella

Don’s Top 5 Things to Like About Brazil

Sindicom, Brazil’s confederation of petroleum wholesalers and convenience stores, invited me to Brazil to give the keynote address last month at the Expo Postos & Conveniencia, the country’s equivalent to the NACS Show in the U.S., although on a much smaller scale. The show attracted about 20,000 attendees to Sao Paulo’s Expocenter Norte pavilion which was filled with about 140 exhibitor companies including both product and service suppliers. With a large number of equipment vendors, the show floor resembled the PEI (Petroleum Equipment Industry) wing at the NACS Show.

Sindicom and a local fuel and lubricants distributor and convenience store operator called, Mime Group, sponsored my trip to Brazil, where I was given a tour of c-stores and gas stations throughout the southern state of Santa Catarina and in the huge business capital of Sao Paulo.

One of the things I liked best about Brazil is that sugar is used to both fuel the majority of the country’s automobiles and to make the country’s signature alcoholic drink, the caipirinha, which I absolutely fell in love with.

Ethanol made from sugar is the fastest growing fuel in Brazil, growing from 4 percent of the country’s fuel consumption to 14 percent over the past five years, according to Sindicom. More than 90 percent of new vehicles in Brazil are equipped with flex-fuel technology – meaning they can run on both traditional gasoline and ethanol, which is usually less expensive than regular petroleum fuel because it is not taxed as heavily.

(By the way, caipirinha is an alcoholic beverage made by crushing lime wedges into granulated sugar, and adding crushed ice and cachaca, a Brazilian rum made from sugar cane. As a crack investigative reporter, I made sure to do extensive taste tests at every stop of my whirlwind trip.)

I’ll be writing a complete analysis of the convenience store scene in Brazil, along with many market statistics, for CSNews’ November 9 issue, but here’s a quick look at five things I liked best about the country:

1. The beaches on Florianopolis, the capital of the state of Santa Caterina were just beautiful. Even in Brazil’s spring, the ocean water was temperate and there were plenty of sun-bathers out, along with wind- and kite-surfers.
2. Guarana Antarctica. This popular guarana-flavored soft drink is refreshing and tastes better than most of the high-octane energy drinks sold in the U.S.
3. Caipirinhas. Mentioned earlier, these sugar-cane rum based drinks go down easy, but pack a wallop.
4. The food. Whether we ate seafood (the moqueca was the best fish stew I ever ate), meat (at authentic churrascarias), or baked goods (loved the cheese bread), the food was as good or better than I’ve tasted anywhere in the world.
5. The people. Diversity, thy name is Brazil. British columnist and author A.A. Gill writes, “There’s no shade of the human color chart that isn’t indigenous. Here you’ll find cities of blue-eyed, blond Germans and Pradablack West Africans. Brazil boasts the largest expat population of Japanese outside Japan.” And there are millions of Italians, not to mention a large Jewish area in Sao Paolo.

-- Don Longo, Editor-in-Chief, Convenience Store News

Niche and Novel: The Beverage Sweet Spot?

Long dominated by a handful of major brands, the U.S. beverage market is being transformed by niche drinks that target specific consumer needs, occasions and benefits, according to recent research by Packaged Facts.

According to  "Beverage Trends: Culinary Trend Mapping Report" recently released by the Center for Culinary Development (San Francisco) and Packaged Facts (Rockville, Md.), two forces are spurring sales in the beverage market: Better-for-you trends (the number-one driver in the new beverage landscape, including functional, nutrition boosting, and holistic-wellness drinks) and consumers' quest for quality, including organic, local, artisan-made, and retro/nostalgic beverages.

The potential for new beverages targeting these trends is significant, with diverse consumers, from Gen Y teens to Gen X parents and sporty Boomers, looking for new healthful and premium new drinks, the report concluded.

“Because of this diversity in consumer demographics and psychographics,” emphasizes Kimberly Egan, CEO of the Center for Culinary Development, “the beverage market is an arena with plenty of room for growth and innovation.”

But what does this mean for c-store operators, who often rely on the major soda companies and their bottlers to shape their cooler planograms? The major cola companies are slowly reshaping their product mixes along consumer trends, but their track record with alternative beverages is littered with failures.

It will be interesting to see how retailers balance limited space and attractive incentives with the potential of new, not-yet-mainstream, niche beverages that carry more risk, but also higher margins, and which may be more desirable to customers who are shunning sodas and have concerns about the ingredients in energy drinks.

 -- Barbara Grondin Francella