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P r o d u ce S h o w D a i l y W e d n e s d a y, Ju n e 2 2 , 2 0 1 6 4 THE SHOPPING CART: BOTH ASSET AND LIABILITY The year is 1936. Sylvan N. Goldman, owner of a chain of Humpty-Dumpty Supermarkets in Oklahoma, wants to find a way to help shoppers purchase and carry more groceries per visit. With the help of Fred Young, a handyman at one of his stores, he develops a prototype for the first ever shopping cart. Since 1936, a wide variety of carts have been devel- oped with the same original goal: to make shopping easier and more conven- ient. While useful to the customer, shop- ping carts are a liability to the grocer and retailer for three main reasons: shopping carts are expensive to purchase and main- tain, retrieving carts is labor intensive and physically demanding with a risk of employee injury, and shopping cart retrieval is hazardous to property and guests. Founded in a garage in 2009, Minneapolis-based C3 LLC is the creator of the patented line of U.S. made C3 Caster-lift Shopping Cart Safety Ropes. The C3 System was developed to make shopping cart management easier, safer and more productive. The C3 System for Complete Cart Control While not usually the top priority for most companies, shopping cart manage- ment is integral to customer service. The C3 System can offer value to any compa- ny with shopping carts in four main ways: it reduces costly wear-and-tear on non-pivoting casters (flat spots created by scraping a line of casters laterally while maneuvering them); it increases productivity thanks to reduced fatigue and the fact that more carts can safely be retrieved per trip; it reduces the likeli- hood that an employee will sustain a strain-induced injury from maneuvering a line of carts; and it reduces company costs related to runaway shopping carts. With retail price of $33.00 for the C3 ST, the C3 Safety Rope is a cost effective solution for any store with shopping carts. Made in the U.S.A., it works well on a wide variety of shopping carts – small and large, metal and plastic, traditional and caster- lift shopping carts. Caster-lift shopping carts are designed such that the rear casters lift off the ground when nested behind another caster-lift cart. They were designed to reduce costly flat spots on the rear wheels that don't pivot. The unintended consequence is that a line of caster-lift carts has the tendency to drift sideways when nested together, espe- cially on sloped surfaces. The C3 Safety Rope works well on caster-lift shopping carts because of it's secure, "hands free" functionality. Very little tightening of the C3 Safety Rope is required with caster-lift shopping carts. With the C3 Safety Rope attached, it is usually best to push a line of caster-lift carts in back- wards, or from the side. Visit www.c3llc.com to order or write to info@c3llc.com for more information. OUTFRONT... FAMILY When you stop in at booth #2620 to check out what OutFront is up to, you will meet Dave and Justin from OutFront Custom Built, an OutFront company manufacturing refrigerated and non- refrigerated merchandisers, hot and cold food bars, grab and go and custom mill- work. Sharing the booth, you will want to chat with OutFront Portable Solutions, a North American leader in "pop-up" gar- den centers and floral fixtures with more than 1,000 garden centers across Canada and the U.S.A. There is strength in the synergy and collaboration of the OutFront group. The OutFront Family of solution-driven com- panies with custom design/build manu- facturing plants in the U.S.A. and Canada also includes: OutFront Food Trucks (Buffalo): on- site design/fabrication/assembly with full custom capability, and new and used/refurbished trucks (14 feet to 24 feet) with upgraded equipment. Buffalo OutFront Metal Works (Buffalo): full metal fabrication and cus- tom job shop. OutFront Portable Solutions (Beamsville, Ontario) also includes XL Shelters (Beamsville, Ontario), leading manufacturer of fabric buildings and structures. Easy Fence: portable fence sales/rentals to the con- struction and special events market, Flammable Gas Container Cages (Beamsville, Ontario), a full range of safety metal cages for flammable gas containers Whether you need a quote, need some help or just want to ask a ques- tion, the company is here to help you. With manufacturing facilities in both Buffalo, New York and an hour away in Beamsville, Ontario, Canada, OutFront Portable Solutions services its customer base across North America. It wants your business today and in the future. In order to achieve that, it must be a value added supplier. Call the company and tell it if that is what you are seeking from your suppliers. No pres- sure, no nonsense – just good people making good products designed to meet your many needs. To learn more, visit booth #2620 at the FMI Connect 2016. For more informa- tion, visit www.outfrontps.com or www.outfrontcustombuilt.com. AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH UF Lee M. Oser CEO and Editor-in-Chief Kim Forrester Jules Denton Associate Publishers Lorrie Baumann Editorial Director Jeanie Catron JoEllen Lowry Associate Editors André Gressieux Art Director Yasmine Brown Krystal Robles Graphic Designers Sarah Glenn Caitlyn McGrath Customer Service Manager Stacy Davis Kim Stevens Show Logistics & Distribution Carlos Velasquez James Gennette Marcos Morhaim Account Managers Enrico Cecchi European Sales Produce Show Daily is published by Oser Communications Group ©2016 All rights reserved. Executive and editorial offices at: 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.1300/Fax: 520.721.6300 www.osercommunicationsgroup.com European offices located at Lungarno Benvenuto Cellini, 11, 50125 Florence, Italy THE TEXAS CORRIDOR TO INTERNATIONAL TRADE An interview with Interim Bridge Director Luis Bazán. PSD: Explain the Pharr International Bridge to our readers. LB: Our slogan and motto describe it well: The Pharr International Bridge is the Texas corridor to international trade; it's your connection, your business, your bridge. The Pharr Bridge lines up direct- ly with I-69, which connects the southern point of Texas and Northern Mexico to the entire U.S., via the NAFTA Free Trade Corridor, all the way up to the north-northeast corner of the country, where we ship and deliver products and goods to the highest populated areas and biggest markets. We are of utmost impor- tance to the U.S. and Mexico economies, with over $30 billion in total trade value with the world in 2014. PSD: What advantage does the I-69 route offer? LB: It's the path of least resistance that connects the Supervía Mazatlán- Matamoros (or the Northern Mexico Trade Corridor) to the rest of the country. This cuts 600 to 700 miles off the length of a competing route through Nogales into Arizona. PSD: Tell our readers about the port facilities. LB: We are the only full-service com- mercial bridge in the region. We have six commercial entry lanes with a fast lane, x-ray, gammas, well laid-out inspection dock and cold inspection area. In recent years, we've made sig- nificant investments inside the port to improve the speed and efficiency with which products can move through the inspection process. One of our invest- ments was the installation of a cold inspection facility that allows produce to be inspected without breaking the cold chain. In addition, about three years ago, we invested in two addi- tional commercial entry lanes and corresponding super-booths. When trucks enter the federal facility, it now opens up into six lanes, which allows for a speedier entry into the importation lot. We are currently working on a new infrastructure project, the BSIF Connector/FAST Lane/Gate-to-Gate, to be completed by the end of 2016. This will allow 30 per- cent of the truck traffic through the port to bypass the entire import lot because they are either certified or empties. We've also invested about $90,000 in overtime pay for CBP personnel through the 559 Program to speed up the process during peak times. PSD: You have other projects in the pipeline, too? LB: Yes, CBP Council and GSA just accepted four new infrastructure proj- ects that we proposed through the 559 Program. One project will add two commercial entry lanes and two super- booths, which will be dedicated, one specifically for wide loads and one specifically for certified and empties. The second project will be two additional exit lanes and two super-booths. These will be dedicated just like the two new entry lanes. The third project is a truck staging area inside the port, which will allow us to park the trucks while they're waiting for additional inspections. In essence, we'll bring them off the bridge, they'll park and be assigned a number for further inspec- tion, if need be. The fourth is an aug- mentation for the USDA facilities. We will build a brand-new agricultural inspection facility, which will also serve as a training center for agricul- ture specialists and entomologists. We are already the number one produce bridge in the nation, and we continue to grow by 5 to 7 percent each year. The Pharr Bridge continues to break new ground and break import/export records. We're looking toward the future, and the future's looking real good! For more information, email Luis Bazán at luis.bazan@pharr-tx.gov or call 956.402.4660.