In this episode of “At Your Convenience,” CSP Senior Editor Hannah Hammond talks to Mark Buonomo, senior category manager for beer, wine and liquor at Global Partners.
Buonomo was a finalist for CSP’s 2025 Category Manager of the Year awards.
The two talked about trends in packaged beverages and alcohol during CSP’s Convenience Retailing University (CRU) event in February in Nashville, Tennessee. Global Partners LP, Waltham, Massachusetts, operates 364 convenience stores under brands including Alltown Fresh, Convenience Plus, Fast Freddie’s and Honey Farms.
“At Your Convenience” brings industry experts and analysts together with CSP editors to discuss the latest in c-store news and trends. From mergers and acquisitions to foodservice and technology, the podcast delivers the story straight to listeners in short-format episodes, perfect for the morning commute or a quick break at the office.
- Global Partners is No. 25 on CSP’s 2025 Top 40 Update to the 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Watch for the full 2025 Top 202 ranking in the June issue of CSP magazine and in CSP Daily News.
Listen to their conversation above, or read the transcript here, which has been edited for length and clarity:
Hannah Hammond: For those of us who maybe aren't out East, can you tell us a little bit about Global Partners?
Mark Buonomo: We've been a family-run business for almost 100 years. Looking at what we have is 1,700 locations that we serve as fuel to in the East corridor from Maine down to Florida, all the way across to Texas. And with that we have about 400-plus company operated stores predominantly in the New England, Virginia and Texas markets.
We were able to pick up 63 locations in the Houston marketplace last year. It's been an awesome experience getting to expand our territory and learn more about the customers that are out in our market.
Hammond: Shifting gears a little, I want to talk about alcohol because I know you manage alcohol in your stores, right? And Mark is also one of our Category Manager of the Year finalists in alcohol for large chain. So I'm going to pick your brain about that a little bit. First off, what's doing really well in alcohol right now?
Buonomo: Right now, it is a mix of things. We've definitely seen a lot of changeovers in maybe what people were drinking last year. We've definitely seen some decline in the malt-based seltzers and those customers have kind of picked up more of the flavored malt beverages that have come out. We've seen a lot of innovation come through tea, hard teas predominantly, a plethora of new brands that have come to market. … And it's been interesting to see how these new brands really shuffle out and kind of what is going to happen in the next couple of months.
Hammond: How do you decide with all the new brands? What's your process for determining if you want to bring something in your stores or not?
Buonomo: So, it's like breaking it down to a science and trying to see how many attributes that particular product has, and if those attributes resonate with our customer. There may not be something for everyone but we try to have exactly what they are potentially looking for and trying to get ahead of that curve a little bit. Social media has really been a driving factor between a lot of brands and how they're getting customer traction or customer acquisition to follow their brands.
And we're seeing the new LDA, the new legal drinking age, be very in tune with that social media push behind a lot of different brands and following their kind of cast of characters that go along with them.
Hammond: I'm glad you brought up social media because we both sat in Nick Modi of RBC Capital Markets presentation today, and he was talking about all the TikTok trends. So I learned about protein Coke, and people putting pickles and jalapenos in their Coke and all those things. So I'm curious, do you ever use social media to see what's trending with your consumers?
Buonomo: Absolutely. There's a lot that comes out of social and trying to aggregate what the true data is versus what someone's opinion is definitely a challenge. But looking at the larger trends, we saw BuzzBallz over the year really start to take off when they built up a traction and following. Even in some of our particular markets in Virginia, I saw some trends that got popular with Taylor port wine over the COVID period that we would never focus on port wine in the convenience channel, but due to some of the social media trends and the new cocktails or beverages that people were making at home, they started to pick up products that hadn't really been of interest for quite some time.
Hammond: What's not doing so well right now in alcohol or beverages in general?
Buonomo: We know traditional wine has seen some declines. Looking at it from the smaller size is really where we're profiting in convenience. We're doing well with things such as like the 500 milliliter packages instead of a traditional 750- or 1.5-liter glass bottle. We've definitely seen some challenges in American lagers. That's kind of been on the down climb over the past year or two, maybe longer.
People are looking for something different and trying to capture some of these new innovation brands or brands that were very regional. It's starting to come out with some of these new price points as well that it's not just a craft scene that someone's going to buy a four pack for $20 and that customer is a little bit less willing to spend that on trial and really being able to provide what are the trial size options to be able to get that incremental unit.
Hammond: What are some standout packaging types? What have you kind of explored in that area?
Buonomo: Packaging is probably my little nerdlike passion. It's just seeing that the consumers that have come out and that are starting to drink today have never really had the opportunity to hold a 12-ounce can.
We look at where they have come up in the other side of the cooler, the non-alcoholic side. The carbonated soft drinks aren't what they were several years ago. Seeing that there's so much more in energy and hydration and functional beverage, they're not necessarily coming in a 12-ounce aluminum can. A lot of them are coming in maybe 500-milliliter Tetra bottles. And there's some great new innovation products that we're starting to see come through on the alcohol side that are utilizing some of these alternative packages that that particular customer has held in their hand for years.
It's really just following what they've held comfortably in their own hands for so long, now they have the opportunity to hold that same package. I look at Lightstrike from New Belgium being one of the beverages that's trying to incorporate hydration as part of the consumption process. It's very different from what we've seen from traditional innovation packages that are on the more dehydrating side. Seeing additives like coconut water, electrolytes or at least sea salt in this instance.
Hammond: How do you use that knowledge then to determine what you want to bring in to your sets?
Buonomo: Being able to get after it quickly and fail fast. That is one I thought Nick made a great comment about that about being able to get out of a declining category as quickly as possible.
There's a good amount of saturation that occurs and you start to see a lot of the “me too” products, some of the brands that are just imitating what are another brewer is already putting out there. If you look at where we are with spirit-based ready-to-drink cocktails, it's quite a saturated market from where it was two to three years ago where we only had a few offerings in there and looking at where we are today, you see that there's so many offerings and the cooler space is so finite.
Hammond: What's your favorite part about working in convenience stores?
Buonomo: Everybody has a need to go into a convenience store. It's not limited to one particular shopper, young, old, it’s not just within alcohol. We service everybody and we become a pillar in the community. And trying to focus in on that local, being able to have offerings that resonate in that community, is really important to us at Global as we try to build up our loyalty and build up our customer following.
Hammond: How did you get your start in the convenience industry?
Buonomo: The convenience industry came to me about six years ago. I did come from grocery and grocery was an awesome opportunity to find my craft in category management and then being able to move to convenience where space is finite, and you have to be able to almost take points off the board to try and get more points knowing that everything in our cooler moves. If I'm going to take in an incremental item, it has to surpass what's currently moving in that cooler set. It's not just trying to say, hey, this is moving the minimum threshold. We need to get the minimum threshold plus whatever the previous unit was covering in there as well so we don't end up negative.
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