Organic eco-friendly shopping: convenience stores

Consumers are purchasing more organic foods in expanding categories. The category with the most growth over the year is "snacks," with 18 percent of infrequent users claiming to purchase organic snacks. New businesses are popping up to serve the exploding demand for organic and natural foods. One example is Full Moon Foodies Inc. located in Portland, Oregon. Full Moon Foodies is a new retail concept poised to capitalize on the current phenomenon in an underserved market segment, the convenience store. By offering friendly knowledgeable staff, upscale store design, multiple community based locations and the extended hours the larger grocers lack this new concept is poised to make living a healthy organic lifestyle a lot easier.

As the number of high density urban centers increases, the need for quick access to organic and environmentally friendly retail follows. The concept focuses on the high density urban market and will feature a clean and modern upscale design with an inviting atmosphere instead of the traditional convenience store starkness. “We’re not trying to re-invent the convenience store or the organic/natural food concept, we’re trying to make it more accessible”, summarizes Ellisa.

According to the Natural Food Merchandiser, American shoppers spent more than $51 billion on natural and organic products in 2005. The market overview article pointed to several trends in the organic and natural food industry, including increased sales of natural products by 9.1 percent across all retail and direct to consumer sales channels. Organic food sales grew 15.7 percent overall, and the fastest growing segment of organic food products is in the organic fresh meat and seafood sales, which grew by more than 67.4 percent in 2005 to $114 million. Additionally, growth of more than 30 percent occurred in the organic nutrition bars, beer and wine and foodservice segments of the market.

This is good news for the organic food industry and organic food shoppers as a whole.

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