December 2021 - 6

EDITOR'S NOTE
When will it end?
THIS MONTH WE SAY GOODBYE TO 2021, AND WE DO NOT THINK
it will be missed. Whereas 2020 was dominated by the at-home work
shift brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, this year was shaped by
several false starts to the long-awaited recovery of the office marketplace,
a vital demographic to the convenience services trade.
The steady discoveries and spread of new variants, responsible for
Nick Montano
Editor
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@vendingmarketwatch.com
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@VendingMagazine
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the majority of COVID infections, suggest the crisis will continue well
into 2022. As we go to press, the new omicron variant coincided with a
spike in searches by Google users asking: " When will COVID end? "
Whether it ends sooner or later, operators are now well prepared to
meet the challenges and will emerge as strong as ever. Support for this
statement can be had in the seven operator interviews we conducted
for this magazine's 2021 cover stories.
We began the year with a profile of Royal ReFresh of Portland, OR.
Owner Ryan Harrington emphasized the importance of teamwork.
" Despite the uncertainty of when or if employees will return to offices,
we are grateful for and amazed by the company's team members.
Everyone has hit this in stride, " he said.
We spoke to Idaho's Treasure Valley Coffee, a large independent
whose specialty is OCS and roasting. Owner Suzanne Boyer remains
optimistic about her company's future. TV Coffee just purchased a new
building to expand its existing Boise campus to support future growth.
Ohio's Maumee Valley Group, owned and operated by the Plassman
Whether it
ends sooner or
later, operators
will emerge as
strong as ever. "
family, not only persevered through the challenges posed by COVID19
and its ensuing lockdowns, but also found new opportunities in its
wake, giving the three-generation operation extra cause for celebration
as it marks 75 years in business.
Jim Evans of New Jersey's Evans Company told us: " A month into
New York's quarantine, I said to an operator friend: 'I'm not going to go
out like this.' The industry has survived the financial crisis, Superstorm
Sandy, 9/11 ... We've dealt with skyrocketing interest rates and unemployment,
recessions - and we survived. Let alone coffee shortages, gas
prices, oil embargoes. We survive and then once again we will thrive. "
American Food and Vending's Jim Roselando Jr. and Patrick Arone
shared how they navigated COVID's extraordinary challenges by reinventing
their approaches to vending, micro markets and OCS. AFV has
served the New England market for 40 years.
In Connecticut and Maryland, the industry is getting a dose of new
DNA. Legend Food Service's Kyle Loughran, Nick Duda, Kevin Koehr
and Ben Adams are bringing fresh perspectives to the industry.
To close the year, we caught up with Bradlee Whitson of South
Jersey's K&R Market Fresh. COVID tested every premise of the way he
operated and challenged him to find a new way to do things. Whitson's
story begins on Page 36.
We thank these operators for sharing their stories of survival and
look forward to a new chapter in 2022.
Editorial
Advisory
Board
Joe Hessling
365 Retail
Markets
Josh
Rosenberg
NAMA Board
Chair
John Reilly
Avanti Markets
Anant Agrawal
Cantaloupe
Systems
USA Technologies
Elyssa Steiner
Cantaloupe
Systems
USA Technologies
Carl Moser
Canteen
Corporate
Chuck Reed
Crane Payment
Innovations (CPI)
Cory Hewett
Gimme
Michael Miller
Mondelēz
International
Paresh Patel
PayRange
Jeff Deitchler
Prairie Fire
Coffee
Jim Carbone
Tradecraft
(retired)
Sandy
Thornton
VendEdge
6 Automatic Merchandiser * December 2021
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December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2021
