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The Convenience Stores News Canada and OCTANE team is thrilled to launch the fourth annual Star Women in Convenience Awards.Nominations are now open and the deadline to nominate is March 31, 2021.

Customers at The Tare Shop in Halifax are creative with their containers: Some use classic jars but others reuse yogurt containers, pots and pans or even empty glass liquor bottles.“One of our regulars who lives across the street came in with a salad bowl,'' says Kate Pepler, the shop's owner.

Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, Häagen-Dazs, Hershey Canada among the early adopters Canada's first modern-day milkman service that delivers brand-name groceries and household goods to doorsteps in reusable packaging is launched in Toronto this week.

Asks that convenience workers be included with other essential retail workers in province's vaccination plansThe Convenience Industry Council of Canada is part of the new Ontario Vaccination Support Council (OVSC), founded by close to 100 businesses, organizations, and the Ontario Chamber Network."The group is made up of a diverse and important group of businesses and organizations and CICC is pleased to have a seat at this table and contribute to this important initiative," the CICC said in a recent email to members.The OVSC, whose members represent hundreds of thousands of employees from across the province, is "to provide support for Ontario’s historic COVID-19 vaccination effort with the ultimate goal of ending the pandemic."The Council will be co-chaired by James Scongack, EVP of corporate affairs & operational services at Bruce Power and Garrick Tiplady, the managing director of Facebook.“We are pleased to launch the Ontario Vaccination Support Council with our partners at Bruce Power and Facebook Canada,” said Rocco Rossi, president and CEO of the OCC.

3 trends poised to shape convenience in 2021 In a world where consumers’ constantly changing product preferences, sky-high expectations and buying behaviours rule, trends often push c-stores to pivot, innovate and aim higher.

Retail sales climbed for the seventh straight month in November as Black Friday deals and a rush to order online gifts early to avoid shipping delays pushed sales up 1.3% to $55.2 billion, Statistics Canada said Friday.But the federal agency's unofficial early estimate for December appeared to dampen the retail momentum.It said sales for the last month of 2020 - typically the peak of the holiday shopping season - potentially fell by as much as 2.6%.Retail expert Farla Efros said it's not surprising the sales would taper off in December given the heavy discounting offered on Black Friday in November, as well as Amazon's decision to move its Prime Day to mid-October."Most people took the opportunity to do their shopping early and get those deals,'' said Efros, president of HRC Retail Advisory.In addition, Toronto and the Peel region went into lockdown in late November, followed by the entire province of Ontario on Boxing Day.Efros said those restrictions likely negatively impacted retail sales throughout December.Meanwhile, the latest Statistics Canada figures show a strong growth in online shopping in November.Retail e-commerce sales for November were up 75.9% from the same month a year earlier, the agency said."The rise in sales coincided with retailers urging online shoppers to buy early to avoid shipping delays, as well as promotional events such as Black Friday,'' Statistics Canada said in its release.Royce Mendes, senior economist at CIBC Capital Markets, said in a client note that the growth in e-commerce sales was likely led by households staying at home more as COVID-19 cases were rising.He said numbers don't include "some of the largest online retailers, which the survey doesn't capture.''Food and beverage store sales were up 5.9% in November, even as about three% of all retailers were closed at some point in the month as restrictions tightened amid a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.Efros pointed out that restaurants in some areas were forced to close in November, likely leading to the increase in retail food sales at grocery stores.She said food price inflation may have also pushed the sales figures higher as well.Meanwhile, sales at auto parts dealers fell in November for the first time since April, as truck sales declined 4 % from November 2019, and passenger car sales tumbled 20.5% compared with the same month last year.

PepsiCo and Beyond Meat are creating a joint venture to develop snacks and drinks made from plant-based proteins.

COVID-19 has transformed consumer behaviourNearly a year into the pandemic, economists believe it’s abundantly clear that COVID-19 has psychologically and materially transformed Canada’s consumer behaviour.But with lockdowns and restrictions still in effect across much of the country, business experts say the dust has yet to settle around these “tectonic shifts” in the state of commerce.