We all know that customer service, bright lights and a clean store drive business, yet many stores are not getting the message. By Jim Callahan. Last month I took a close look at making the outside appearance of our convenience stores attractive enough to entice consumers to want to enter our stores and spend more [...]
The second annual “Fight Hunger. Give Hope” campaign invites customers to buy paper hearts to support local food banks. Thirty PS Food Mart stores across Michigan and Ohio are joining together to launch the second annual “Fight Hunger. Give Hope” campaign to raise money for local food banks. Between March 18 and April 3, customers [...]
The We Card Program offers seven steps c-store retailers need to take right now. By: Doug Anderson, President, The We Card Program. Before FDA regulations took effect, it was enough to prevent an underage tobacco sale. The question, “Is this customer old enough to buy tobacco?” ruled the day. That way of thinking falls short [...]
“Our industry continues to play an integral role in providing jobs and revenue necessary to heal our recovering economy,” says Beer Institute president. A new Economic Impact study conducted by the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) shows America’s beer industry—made up of brewers, beer importers, beer distributors, brewer suppliers and retailers—directly [...]
Q3 earnings were impacted by compressed margins due to a competitive cigarette environment, rising commodity costs and increased operating expenses related to store openings. Casey’s General Stores Inc. has reported $0.34 in basic earnings per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 ended Jan. 31, 2011, compared to $0.34 for the same quarter a [...]
Visa and MasterCard are among the payment providers targeted by “hacktivists” calling into question the effectiveness of PCI compliance. By Howard Riell, Associate Editor. The arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the U.K. in early December got some people angry—and they took revenge. A day after Assange was arrested and denied bail in London [...]
On March 1, 2011 Getty Realty Corp. was informed by management of Lukoil North America LLC that Lukoil transferred its interest in its wholly-owned subsidiary, Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. (Marketing), Getty Realty’s largest tenant, to an unrelated party on Feb. 28, 2011. Getty Realty has commenced a preliminary dialogue with the new management of Marketing. [...]
The stagnant economy and hefty cigarette taxes have more c-store chains adding extra roller grill items to provide a greater array of hot food options at a value price. By Howard Riell, Associate Editor. Yes, the number of food items that can be prepared on roller grills—hot dogs, corn dogs, taquitos, stuffed breadsticks, kielbasa, grilled [...]
The Category Management Association (CMA) has released a first-of-its-kind survey of the methods and practices used by manufacturing companies to measure the return-on-investment (ROI) of their category management functions. While results indicate broad acknowledgment of the growing importance and analytical sophistication of category management, survey participants across all channels say they need standard metrics and [...]
The 2011 NASCAR season is quickly approaching, and Hunt Brothers® Pizza already has reason to celebrate. In a partnership with Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI), Hunt Brothers Pizza will be the primary sponsor for two of NASCAR’s most successful and influential drivers, Kevin Harvick and Elliott Sadler. KHI was founded in 2001 by Kevin Harvick and [...]
By Brian L. Milne, Refined Fuels Editor, Telvent DTN A string of successive advances in the US retail gasoline price average reported by the federal government that started in late November ended Jan. 31 with a 0.9 cents decline to $3.101 gallon. The US average, which is for regular grade gasoline and reported by the [...]
New c-store plans to feature prepared foods and operate 24 hours per day. After an almost year-long battle, Valentine Stores has won approval via a 4-1 vote by the Village Board of Trustees to build a Nice N Easy c-store on a former Main Street Mobil lot in Canton, N.Y., the Daily Courier-Observer. At 5,500 [...]
Management Science Associates Inc. (MSA) announced its intention to market VendorExpress to enhance and streamline information exchanges between wholesale distributors and their suppliers. VendorExpress is an expansion of an in-house product developed by Pine State Trading Company called mypinestate.com, a collaborative business platform that provides the Maine-based distributor’s suppliers with 24×7 access to the most [...]
Love’s plans to spend $230 million making enhancements to current locations and building new sites. Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, a national operator of travel centers and convenience stores based in Oklahoma City, has planned capital expenditures of $230 million for calendar year 2011. The majority of this amount, $180 million, is scheduled to [...]
Convenience stores are unique to other foodservice outlets, presenting special challenges to c-store management and suppliers of food, equipment and disposable products. To help executives quickly get up to speed, Technomic is offering a special half-day C-Store Foodservice 101 seminar. Program highlights include: * Foodservice industry overview. * Top-line issues and concerns of c-store foodservice. [...]