Convenience Matters

“You need to separate yourself from the competition,” stresses Kent Couch. It’s something that he first did with a series of record-setting cluster balloon flights, beginning in 2006. However, the story about his Stop & Go store in Bend, OR, is really about what they have brought home from learning at NACS Shows and through NACS membership. Currently, it’s the wildly popular growler program, with more than 50 taps in the gas station. His store was the first to put in a growler station in the Northwest a few years ago. (Kent said that he got the idea from a NACS Daily article, and he says that it may have kick-started the entire growler craze in the Northwest.) Co-hosts Jeff Lenard, NACS Vice President of Strategic Industry Initiatives; and Carolyn Schnare, NACS Director of Strategic Industry Initiatives talk to Kent about how he finds ideas to grow his one-store business. (Hint: The NACS Show plays a big role.)