Are You Losing Money by Not Offering Healthy Convenience Store Foods?

Get 7 tips to turn grab-and-go fruit into c-store profits today! 

Problem:  
Do you want to add fresh fruit to your c-store inventory but worry it won’t sell?  

Solution:  
Get 7 Top Tips to Boost Fruit Sales in Your C-Store and Improve Customer Satisfaction: 

1. Ask Your Customers What Fruits They Want to Buy. Demand for different types of fruits depends on the c-store’s geographic location. Examples: Apples, bananas, and oranges sell well in Philadelphia, but customers in Indianapolis want peaches and plums. Learn what your customers want, and offer those fruit options. 
2. Start Small to See What Sells Best to Avoid Spoilage and Waste. Don’t add too many new items at once. Example: Buy a few bananas, apples, or oranges from your vendor to see how fast it sells instead of spending extra to buy entire boxes of fruit that you may not be able to sell. 
3. Pay Attention to Types of Fruit Selling at Your C-store. Make stocking decisions based on what items your customers buy. You can track sales trends with back-office inventory software. 
4. Sell Only High-Quality Fruit. Customers don’t buy fruit that looks or smells bad, so remove any fruit with bruises, dents, spoilage, odor, or mold. 
5. Store Fruit Properly. Don’t refrigerate bananas, or their skin will turn black. You can store apples and oranges at room temperature but they will last longer if you refrigerate them (at least overnight). Don’t store fruit in bags or in closed containers because it will spoil faster. 
6. Display Fruit Attractively. Use colorful baskets or other types of appealing containers, and keep containers full of fresh fruit. Remove spoiled fruit because it makes the good fruit look less appealing. 
7. Display Your Fruit Near the Cash Register. This tip will spur sales and allow your employees to better monitor the fruit’s quality and discard fruit as soon as it begins to turn bad.  

Bonus Tip: Bananas are an excellent starting point for selling fruit, the ultimate grab-and-go snack. 
Andrei Vitiuc, Store Manager of a Market24 convenience store in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, said bananas sell very well at his c-store, particularly when people are grabbing breakfast on the way to work. “They’re very popular,” he said. Vitiuc sells bananas that cost him 59 cents each, and he charges 99 cents for them — that’s a 40 cent profit per banana.  

Don’t Miss: Vitiuc doesn’t have to worry if bananas go bad before he sells them because his distributor gives him credit for unsold or spoiled bananas. Ask your distributor if they will do the same for you. 

Smart Idea: Store and display bananas away from other fruit. Bananas give off high levels of ethylene, a gas that makes produce ripen and spoil faster. You can protect bananas from their own ethylene by keeping them in bunches and wrapping the stems with plastic wrap.  

The Next Steps: Explore whether adding bananas or other grab-and-go fruits would be right for your store by asking your customers what fruits they would eat at breakfast or as a snack. Buy a small amount of fruit to get started, and keep the 7 Top Tips in mind to help fruit sell. 

Strategy: When planning your food service menu, consider healthy options such as salads, wraps, and smoothies. QwickServe® makes it easy for customers to order the food they want the way they want it. Request a demo today! 

Source: The Food Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing community access to affordable, nutritious food.