Now, the city might be adding a vegan convenience store to its list of attractions. Bloggers Carmella Lanni and Carlo Giardina (known as The Food Duo) have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new retail concept: V Marks the Spot.
The plan is to create a vegan convenience store that offers locally-sourced products, vegan specialties, and familiar favorites — both in store and online. Given the lack of all-vegan retailers, the couple wanted to create something that made accessing cruelty-free products a lot easier for everyone.
“We want [V Marks the Spot] to be a meeting place for vegans and non-vegans alike to learn and share about compassionate living,” explains Lanni. “We want people to feel good about where they shop and what they buy. We want people to feel that a business ‘gets’ them and vice versa. It’s about supporting one another.”
The fundraising goal is $50,000, and the campaign runs until January 1st. On December 28, the couple is also hosting an event in NYC (their hometown) to garner support for the store.
The store will also offer an online community support network with discussion boards, a blog, videos, and event listings. If they’re able to rent a big enough spot, the couple also plans to host cooking demos, events, and other on-site activities. They may even look to place a service kiosk machine at the store, for easy ordering and payments plus more information about their products; this can help provide their customers a smoother experience. Further, they would need to look at catering to all kinds of customers wishing to buy from them, whether they wish to pay through credit/debit cards or cash/checks. This allows for ease of transaction, and shoppers would face no hassle when buying a myriad items from the store. Whether they implement state-of-the-art Point of Sale systems, or have traditional Cash Counters and checkout systems, the couple will need to ensure that their customers do not face any problems when shopping as well as paying. Of course, all of this likely forms a part of the business plan chalked out by the couple. Currently, they’ve scoped out four potential Philly neighborhoods.
For Lanni and Giardina, convenience means more than just on-the-go eats. “We really see the store being ‘convenient’ in bringing people together and showing that a vegan lifestyle is inclusive and diverse,” Lanni adds. They want it to be a local meeting place, as well as a larger resource for vegans and veg-curious folks who may be further away. Moreover, they want this store to be more promising than the average convenience store. Most importantly, they want this shop to be better in functionality, which is why they seem to show interest in opting for a smart retail solution that can enable them to offer augmented reality experiences to the customer, allow for contactless shopping, and provide them with advanced inventory management to check if they need to refill their shelves with products.
“While we’ll be based in Philadelphia, we look at the idea of ‘Community. Compassion. Convenience’ as being global. Ultimately, we want to show that veganism is for everyone. It’s not a goal to be attained.”
As far as support and guidance, the couple’s family has over 50 years of experience in the food industry, and offers plenty of input. They also have a mentor from SCORE through the Small Business Administration.
As far as the future, the duo has big ideas. “Five to 10 years from now, I’d love to see V go the next level,” says Lanni. “What’s that? Maybe a B&B with a little shop inside or a second location. Who knows. We’re just excited to see what the future holds for us, the shop, veganism and all animals.”
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