Nice N Easy Pays to Be Nice

CANASTOTA, N.Y. -- Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes Inc. and Syracuse, N.Y.-based television station CNY Central have teamed together to recognize local nice people in the Nice Person In Action contest. The contest, which launched in May and runs through November, will pick one central New Yorker each month to win a $50 Nice N Easy gasoline card and get his or her name and photo posted on CNY Central's Facebook page and website.

Nice N Easy is also promoting the contest on YouTube and in commercials running on CNY Central (watch the embedded video).

Ann Ammann, projects manager and customer relations with Nice N Easy, Canastota, N.Y., which has 82 sites, told CSP Daily News that a friend of company founder John MacDougall who works at CNY Central actually proposed the idea. "He knows how much [John] is involved with the community and always does nice things for people, so we wanted to reward other nice people," said Ammann.

There are no specific qualifications that Nice N Easy and CNY Central are demanding as they pick winners, said Ammann, but nominators are asked to share examples of niceness. As of May, the contest has received 22 nominations, and a winner will be chosen randomly. Nominations can be submitted at CNY Central's website (click here to view the form).

The contest earned kudos from local blogger Chuck Fiello Jr., who writes the "Syracuse State of Mind" blog, which covers the city and Syracuse University. In a post on the contest, Fiello commented, "I am not writing this simply to acknowledge their great campaign, but in the hopes it encourages others to take similar steps, and we as people to see not the rewards but also see how good it feels to do good things for other people." (For more of Fiello's thoughts on Nice N Easy, click here.)

In related news, Syracuse newspaper The Post-Standard covered the c-store chain's inclusion in the 2012 NACS Ideas 2 Go video, which highlights retailers' innovative best practices and will be featured at the annual NACS Show. A National Association of Convenience Stores film crew was in upstate New York this May to film both Nice N Easy and Delta Sonic Car Wash, which is based in Buffalo, N.Y.

Jeff Lenard, vice president of industry advocacy for NACS, told the newspaper about Nice N Easy's grocery and foodservice focus, which is overseen by in-store chefs. "You don't see many convenience stores acting as grocery stores in an area underserved by grocery stores. There are a whole lot of [c-store] retailers who face permit issues, where the community says, 'We don't want you.' Nice N Easy had the opposite--the community saidl 'We need you,' and Nice N Easy responded with a newer, larger store. It's an operation to be admired and take ideas from."

Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes operates more than 80 stores throughout the state of New York with executive offices located in Canastota, N.Y.