Proprietary Brands Prosper With consumers seeking less expensive options, private label sales are increasing across all channels, but struggling in c-stores, where they brought in $3 billion in sales, but were down 3.3% compared to last year, for the 52 weeks ended Feb. 21, 2009. In contrast, Wal-Mart’s private label sales were up by 10.8%,…
Taking Convenience to a New Level
The milkman is making his rounds in Mountain Top, Penn. Good2Go is enhancing its convenience offering by providing residents the option of having fresh, all-natural and organic products delivered directly to their front doors. When partners Awais Ahmad, V.J. George and Thomas Job opened the store in September 2008, they had no idea how popular…
Dipping Into New Profits
In a market plagued by high taxes, declining gross margin profits on cigarettes and the likely possibility of FDA restrictions on tobacco, retailers more than ever need to manage the tobacco category more closely. It’s no secret that the smokeless category has been growing, with big year-on-year gains in new product sales, flavors and line…
The Many Hats of a Marketing Manager
As the sales and marketing manager for Jaco Oil Co., which runs 53 Fastrip stores in California and Arizona, Fred Faulkner’s job is a busy one. Faulkner holds the responsibility of buying for all categories, selecting in-store equipment from deli cases to fountain machines, shaping the deals for purchases, creating the point-of-sale for promotions and…
Retalix to Offer Tidel Cash Management Systems
Dallas-based Retalix, a global provider of software solutions for retailers and distributors, has entered into a reseller agreement with Tidel Engineering L.P., in order to provide Tidel’s electronic cash management systems to c-store operators. Under the agreement, Retalix will tightly integrate the Retalix StorePoint point-of-sale (POS) software with Tidel’s Sentinel retail cash security…
Equipment Key to Driving Food Sales
Convenience store operators in search of faster cooking times and longer holding times are finding foodservice equipment that can help. But which pieces, at what price points, with what sort of ROIs and in what sort of configuration remain questions that must be weighed and answered. For an industry whose core competency isn’t food, and…
Economists Predict Recession’s End
More than 90% of economists predict the recession will end this year, although the recovery is likely to be rough, the Associated Press reported. The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) recently surveyed leading forecasters about the state of the economy. The results of the survey, released Wednesday, showed their views are in…
Pepsi Co. To Cut Jobs
Frito-Lay Inc.’s Plano headquarters let go about 130 employees this week as its parent company, Pepsi Co., initiates a “productivity program,” the Dallas Morning News reported. PepsiCo Inc., Purchase, N.Y., said Tuesday it plans to eliminate about 3,300 positions across the globe, 300 of which will be employees of Frito-Lay, the nation’s largest…
Consumers Concerned Over Gas Prices
A majority of consumers are planning road trips this summer and gas is the top expense they are budgeting for, according to a study conducted by Harris Interactive® on behalf of Petrofix. Some 92% of respondents noted finding the lowest-priced gas during their trip will be important. Petrofix, an online service that controls gas…
McCafé Off To Strong Start
Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s Corp. executives said on Wednesday that the company’s rollout of its new McCafé coffee line is off to good start, and it anticipates data on its market share impact to be available in about six months, according to Reuters. Around 11,000 of McDonald’s roughly 14,000 U.S. locations now have…