Hess Corp., operator of more than 1,350 convenience stores in 14 states from Massachusetts to Florida, has chosen IBM Cognos BI to deliver a full range of business intelligence capabilities across its marketing and refining organization. Looking to deliver unified access to critical information in its downstream operations, Hess executives decided to standardize its performance…
Get Them Where They Shop
Your store is a great place to advertise. The customer is already there and receptive to making a purchase. You have the ability to control the environment and the number and types of messages you communicate. And today you can choose from more media formats than ever before—everything from simple signage to video and digital…
Analyzing Scan Data
Market basket analysis and its offshoot, affinity marketing, continue to follow the usual c-store industry adoption pattern: cautious expansion, mostly among the bigger chains. But the potential payoffs could be enormous. That said, like most new technologies market basket requires commitment at the top, beginning with more expensive software matched with an appropriate point-of-sale (POS)…
Creating Loyalty Among Thrifty Customers
Retailers throughout the country are aware that with the current economic downturn, customers are often trying to find the most cost-effective deals. But industry leaders are relying on innovative solutions aimed at getting their customers decent deals while creating brand loyalty. Fuel retailer loyalty programs work similar to loyalty programs in other industries, according to…
Technology Driving Safety and Cash Management
Safeguarding c-stores and the people and property in and around them is getting easier and more economical thanks largely to incremental advances in a variety of technologies. Among them: safes that do more, software systems that communicate better and electronic eyes that see more. Theft and mayhem of all types, from gas pump drive-offs and…
Technology: Plural Platforms Top Priority
Today’s c-store retailers want technology platforms that will allow them to manage fuel brands, foodservice operations, remain PCI compliant, easily access data and help improve customer service simultaneously. Sound like a tall order? It’s really not, said Jenny Bullard, chief information officer of the Jones Co., which owns 177 Flash Foods stores in Georgia and…
Manage a C-Store, Xbox-style
Pulling a page from the blockbuster videogame SimCity, Asian videogame maker Nippon Ichi Software has developed “Combini 200X,” a videogame where users can manage their own convenience store, Wired.com reported. The game lets players become owners of a chain of convenience stores, which are called “kombini” in Japanese and usually written as “combini” in English.…
Too Costly To Count
Fuel prices flirting with the $4 mark are causing problems for thousands of rural fuel dealers whose pumps can’t count that high, the Associated Press reported. Fuel equipment suppliers are reporting a surge in demand for fuel equipment that allows older fuel pumps, which use mechanical reels instead of digital readouts, to display prices up…
Secure Your System
MasterCard announces that more than 40 million credit card numbers belonging to U.S. consumers have been accessed by a computer hacker and are at risk of being used for fraud; however, company officials can’t say how long the confidential information has been missing. A disgruntled technology employee cracks his former company’s computer system and destroys…
Retailers Salute Their Leading Suppliers
Despite the much-ballyhooed growth of chains like Walgreens, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and Wal-Mart, it is convenience stores that remain an important daily stop for the nation’s busy consumers. As a result, convenience stores represent a powerful sales opportunity for product and service supplier companies, CSD set out to find the industry’s top performers as identified…