Forging Successful Relationships

These ingredients are key to developing and maintaining successful relationships with grocery partners:

1. Select the right grocery partners
2. Speak to grocers’ priorities
3. Proactively address common tension points
4. Convene planning meetings with the right stakeholders at the right time
5. Set clear expectations and requirements
6. Estimate incentive redemption
7. Maintain and monitor
8. Promote early and often

Find more in depth strategies in the resource section.

Site Selection Criteria

You may consider the following criteria while determining which sites to work with. It can help to make your version of these criteria clear from the get-go, so you can refer to them if you have limited funding and/or are unable to accept every applicant into your program. At the very least, you should consider:

1. Site capacity

2. Geographic spread and need

3. Innovation

4. Local funding

You can read more about these criteria in our "Guide to Site Selection."

Additionally, many lead organizations conduct site visits to get a better sense of a site's readiness to participate in Double Up.

Ensuring Program Success

In early conversations with prospective grocery stores, you might be wondering how to communicate:

1. What is Double Up?

2. What are the benefits?

3. Who can participate?

4. What are program expectations?

The resources in this section will help you articulate these questions so sites can determine their readiness to participate.

Define Your Process

First, determine your ability to bring on new sites. Do you have enough funding and staff capacity to advertise widely, or will you invite specific sites to participate? This will impact the application process.

Next, determine the purpose of your application process. It can be:

• Competitive: if you have more sites showing interest than slots available, think about the criteria your organization prioritizes for selecting participating sites (see "Selecting Participating Sites" section, above). Think about how the information you'll gather in the application process will help you make decisions based on these criteria. For example:
  • If moving into new geographies is important, ask about the site's location
  • If site capacity matters, ask questions about their personnel and ability to manage additional programming
• Information-gathering: If you have invited specific sites to participate, asking them to fill out an application can still be a good way to collect background information you need about their sites.

Collect the Right Information

While creating your application, think about the information you'll need to gather:

• for reporting purposes. If funders require certain information about the businesses participating in your program, the application might be a good time to collect that. Common examples are:
  • USDA FNS authorization number
  • Size of retail outlet
  • Year in business
• for promoting Double Up so you can advertise the program to shoppers. Common examples are:
  • Location
  • Days and hours of operation
  • Contact information