Crossover Beverage Popularity Increases
By Angela Altass
Crossover beverages are increasingly available to consumers, offering alcoholic versions of brands that have traditionally been associated with non-alcoholic beverages.
“Crossover beverages are being launched aggressively in the beverage alcohol world to satisfy the growth and demands of the new generation of beverage alcohol consumers,” says Dave Bryans, president, C Store Consulting.
It is imperative that the alcoholic versions of these brands are easily identifiable by customers and staff alike even though they often share similar names, logos and packaging with non-alcoholic beverage products.
All alcohol products are usually merchandised in the same area of either a cold vault or sales area while non-alcoholic similar brands are merchandised with other non-alcoholic products in a separate cooler area, notes Bryans.
“Convenience stores have always been the enabler of age restricted products and have a strong understanding of the expectations to ensure alcohol versus non-alcohol are not in the same coolers but have their own distinct identities and locations for each class of customer,” says Bryans. “We are best at serving various restricted and non-restricted products in every community and this is just another product that customers demand.”
Convenience store employees are trained to handle contentious products, says Bryans.
“Employees are trained to refuse the sale of cigarettes to anyone under the age of 19 and age test anyone who appears to be 25 and under,” says Bryans. “For beverage alcohol, all employees 19 and over must be trained and certified at SafeSelling.com under the watchful eye of the alcohol and gaming commission. Any employee under 19 cannot handle or sell beverage alcohol in any location.”
Convenience store owners often hire students for the summer season and Bryans notes that all employees under the age of 19 cannot handle beverage alcohol, whether that be receiving the products, stocking shelves or selling at cash. They should, however, be aware of these products in the store and be informed of which products they are authorized to handle and sell and realize that under scanning procedures, non-alcohol similar products would scan much cheaper than their alcohol equivalents.
Ready Training Online has created a product awareness training program that aims to educate and prepare frontline workers on the topic of crossover beverages. The company says that the emergence of these increasingly popular products, which put alcohol into traditionally non-alcoholic drinks, has created a demand for training and awareness, particularly for stores that sell both types of beverages.
“The crossover training is available to Canadians as it is offered as online training, however, we currently only offer this module in English,” says Tom Hart, director of business development, Ready Training Online. “This training is unique in the sense that this trend is gaining popularity and training becomes critically important for responsible alcohol sales. This is especially important for employees who may be new to the convenience business and may not immediately recognize products that would be in the crossover category.”
As part of the crossover alcohol product awareness training, employees learn how to differentiate these beverages from their non-alcoholic counterparts, how to stock them in a way that lessens confusion for the customer, and why it’s important to know these things.
“As more and more of these crossover beverages are found on store shelves, it’s imperative that frontline workers are given the tools they need to responsibly sell them,” says Laura Wentling, government affairs, Ready Training Online.
