Since 1970 Earth Day has been a global celebration with this year marking the 50th year of the holiday. The day centers on efforts of people across the world to promote environmental concerns and conversation efforts.
Since 1990 the holiday has been recognized globally and today over 190 countries around the world partake in festivities that help promote a global consciousness of taking care of our planet, as well as actions to promote quick action regarding global warming and clean energy.
In the U.S. many retailers, especially those in the health foods and green living spaces, take advantage of the holiday to promote their businesses. Here are several ways health food retailers across the industry can leverage Earth Day to help make a difference in their communities:
Compostable Packaging
Plastic packaging is a major part of our retail culture with around 40% of plastic produced being turned into single-use packaging for food and other items. If this plastic and packaging is not disposed of properly or recycled in accordance with local regulations it can wreak havoc on our communities and the ecosystems in which we live, work, and play.
Retailers across the country need to work together to combat this issue, especially those in the health food realm. Since Earth Day is about being green, start an initiative in your green or health food retail location to give back to the Earth.
Avoid using single-use plastics in your health food store and consider compostable alternatives such as paper or cardboard packaging rather than plastics or foams. Packaging that easily break down such as cardboard and paper can be used by your customers to create a compost pile that not only avoids landfills, but can also be used as fertilizer for yard and garden projects. Beyond being good for the environment, your customers will feel good knowing they helped build a sustainable future from their composting efforts.
Ditch the Plastic Bags
It’s no secret that plastic bags are bad for the environment. Still, the average family accumulates 60 of them in only four trips to the grocery store and the U.S. as a whole goes through an average of 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. This costs retailers an estimated $4 billion each year.
If the cost to retailers isn’t scary enough, consider the environmental impact of all those bags. Plastic bags can’t break down and if they aren’t properly recycled, they will damage the environment, as well as the ecosystem.
Help eliminate the use of plastic and even single-use paper bags by incentivizing customers to bring their own reusable shopping bags and reusable containers for bulk food purchases. Offering deals such as percentages off products, or filling bags for a set price can encourage people to use their own bags or containers while bringing them into your health food store to make purchases.
Healthy Delivery Options
Delivery is more important now than ever before for retail, especially as technology advances make it easier to both place orders as a customer and fulfill them as a retailer. Your health food retail location can leverage Earth Day to create delivery promotions for your healthy and green food options.
By offering a healthy delivery service, your operations will be able to serve more customers than you thought possible. It may also attract customers that wouldn’t typically shop at your location, especially if you partner with third-party delivery services such as Instacart or Postmates.
When considering offering delivery, an effective inventory management system is also important for your health food retail location. This system will help to keep you organized and allow you to keep track of what items you have in stock. An efficient system will also be able to update this information on your website and online ordering platforms in real-time to help avoid disappointing customers.
When Tech Goes Green
Leveraging technology is an essential part of nearly every business, and this is especially true for retail and grocery operations. Not only can your operations use technology to help make running your health food retail business easier, it can also help the environment.
Ditch your traditional receipt printer for a digital, e-receipt. Your business will save on the need for paper that will be inevitably thrown away or lost by providing customers with a receipt that will be sent directly to them as a digital copy, either through text or email. Later if they need to find their proof of purchase it will be easy to find through a quick search of the text messages or emails.
Celebrate Earth Day Everyday
Earth Day is an important celebration around the world and health food retailers can help make a difference, not only on this day but every day. By leveraging the power of your retail operations and the tech that powers it, you can help spread your message and love for the earth and encourage healthy habits every day. Contact our team of experts at Auto-Star to help you find all the right solutions for your health food operation today.
