At a Glance: Rutter’s Farm Stores Rutter’s enjoys a long, proud history tracing its roots in Central Pennsylvania all the way back to 1747. The company broke ground on its first convenience store in 1967 and today retails more than 100 million gallons of fuel annually throughout Pennsylvania’s York, Lancaster, Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin and [...]
As the economy slowing recovers, customers are still adapting. With that in mind, Mintel has predicted nine key consumer trends for the year ahead, examining how long term behavior has been implicated. In 2011, consumers are living for the long term with attitudes inspired by a changed value set. “The effects of the global economic [...]
Heineken, the No. 1 selling European import beer in the U.S., unveiled the details of its ‘The Holidays Start Here’ retail program. ‘The Holidays Start Here’ invites consumers, through a custom Heineken Party Planner iPhone and Android app, to eliminate the guesswork from planning or attending the ultimate holiday party. The program will run in [...]
The thirsty teenager steps up to a bright red vending machine and takes out her mobile phone. She places the phone near a reader attached to the machine and a cold can of cola is immediately dispensed. This scene is repeated thousands of times each day for thirsty consumers—in Japan. For almost six years, Japanese [...]
MAPCO Express Inc., an independent convenience store chain with more than 400 neighborhood retail locations throughout the southeastern U.S., has announced its upcoming $1.10 Gas Giveaway promotion. On Oct. 10, 2010, for 110 minutes, MAPCO Express plans to sell gasoline for only $1.10 per gallon at five selected secret MAPCO locations throughout its service area. [...]
Ricker Oil customers who follow the company on Twitter have a chance at winning free gasoline this week. Ricker Oil is rewarding its Twitter followers by launching Ricker’s Tweet Up Fill Up, a one-week social media promotion at convenience stores in Anderson and Indianapolis. From Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, five Twitter followers each day [...]
Norfolk, Va.-based Outsite Networks, a loyalty solutions provider for the c-store industry, and Catalina Marketing, a provider of precision marketing and shopper-focused media, have partnered to develop a c-store network that brings manufacturer-sponsored coupons to c-store consumers. The partnership leverages Catalina Marketing’s understanding of how purchase behavior can be used to design and execute successful [...]
Roadrunner Markets of Johnson City, Tenn., has hired Creative Energy to create and manage the social media strategy for the chain’s 92 convenience store locations in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. “Social media is an effective way to reach out to your customers and have a relationship with them,” said Creative Energy’s social [...]
Walgreens has introduced a new Web site for socially-conscious consumers, investors and employees to find information about its commitment to community, diversity, supplier diversity, disability inclusion and the environment. Walgreens.com/responsibility allows users to find new articles, personal stories, videos and interactive features about the company’s benefits to the communities it serves. The new site showcases [...]
Family Express, is devlving into the social and mobile marketing arena through a relationship with GasBuddy Retail Solutions’ OpenStore platform. This innovative program complements the recently launched F.E. PERKS Loyalty program by linking it with GasBuddy databases. Customers who join the free F.E. PERKS program enjoy numerous benefits: in addition to receiving immediate cents off [...]
Throughout my 15 years of covering the convenience store industry, I’ve had the opportunity to meet some amazing people, develop lifelong friendships and watch in awe as otherwise ordinary people learned to work together to produce extraordinary results. Throughout that time I’ve also seen countless people come and go. For some, the industry was a [...]
Voting begins today, Thursday, for the most exciting technology found at NACStech by attendees. Retailers at the show need to download the NACStech mobile app in order to vote. Results will be announced at Friday’s Expo Trends 2010 workshop. NACStech, held May 5-7, officially kicked off yesterday at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in [...]
Professional drivers and motorists can now locate the nearest Pilot Travel Center anywhere in North America with a new free iPhone application introduced this month. “We appreciate the fact that many loyal Pilot customers only look for Pilot Travel Centers when they are on the road, and this online tool makes it very easy to [...]
A chocolate Labrador named Cody, owned by BP c-store owner Karim Mansour, became well-known by fans across the country in recent months, even gaining his own Web site and facebook page. The pooch who was often seen wearing a BP shirt and name tag and popping up behind the drive through window, had been an [...]