The Sky’s the Limit on New Ideas

Oregon convenience retailer Kent Couch talks about how he finds new ideas that excite customers and keep them coming back in the latest NACS Convenience Matters.

November 07, 2016

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – “You need to separate yourself from the competition,” stresses Kent Couch, which is something that he first did with a series of record-setting cluster balloon flights, beginning in 2006.

In the latest NACS Convenience Matters podcast, Couch, a single-store operator in Bend, Oregon, talks about his Stop & Go store and what his team has learned and brought home from NACS Shows and through NACS membership.

Couch spoke to cohosts Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of strategic industry initiatives, and Carolyn Schnare, NACS director of strategic initiatives, in the episode titled “Competitive Advantage.”

Currently, Couch differentiates himself with “The Growlers Guys,” his wildly popular growler program, with more than 50 craft beer and kombucha taps. His store was the first to install a growler station in the Northwest a few years ago. (He said that he got the idea from a NACS Daily article, and that it may have kick-started the entire growler craze in the Northwest.)

After listening to Couch, take a tour of his store in a 2013 NACS Ideas 2 Go segment.

The NACS podcast can be downloaded on iTunes by searching for “Convenience Matters.” It also is available at nacsonline.com/podcasts.

A new Convenience Matters podcast will be released every week, focusing on topics related to convenience stores. Since its launch in February 2016, the podcast has been downloaded in more than 50 countries.

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