An Easy Sell

Food Land Mini Mart has been offering customers fresh produce since 2003.

December 07, 2016

MANSFIELD, Ohio — After a local grocery store closed, Richland Public Health (RPH) wanted to partner with local convenience stores to sell fresh fruit and vegetables. But one local retailer, Food Land Mini Mart, was already carrying fresh produce and other healthy items, Richland Source reports.

Food Land Mini Mart has had fresh fruit since 2003. Co-owner Raleigh Chaffin had been a fruit farmer before moving into the convenience store industry. “We don’t sell as many chips as we used to,” he said. “Now they’re eating more of the healthier foods.”

He has his fruits and vegetables toward the back of the store where he has some seating with the idea that customers would pick up an apple to munch on in the store. “No one does that, though. Everyone’s too busy and moving too fast. They want to get in and get out,” Chaffin said.

While the produce moved okay in the early days, about four or five years ago, sales started to decline. Then last year, RPH Health Educator Ellen Claiborne approached Food Land Mini Mart about carrying produce under RPH’s Communities Preventing Chronic Disease, a grant-funded program begun last year.

RPH recommended moving the fruit bins to the store’s front. Grant money helped purchase a refrigerator to keep produce fresh and an outside banner reading “Good Food Here.” The changes boosted monthly produce sales by 80%, with sales continuing a steady upward projection.

Chaffin estimated a 10% bump in foot traffic with the emphasis on fresh produce, with around 20% of his customers purchasing produce. “It feels good to us because now the neighborhood is not eating more junk food—we’re helping them eat better,” he said.

Learn more about fresh produce in convenience stores in the “Are Your Stores ‘Fit for Fresh’?” NACS Convenience Matters podcast. 

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