The industry has reached unforeseen heights over the past quarter century, but it remains a people business first and foremost.
By Jim Callahan.
“Carry me back and let me feel at home, let me cling to those memories that won’t let me alone.”
Those are great lyrics from the Statler Brothers and perhaps, a fitting introduction to Convenience Store Decisions’ 25th anniversary edition.
So, fast backward: The year is 1990 and buoyed by their successful launch of Modern Baking magazine, CSD founder Bill Donohue and his group made what they were told was the winning bid for a struggling and soon to be defunct magazine named: Convenience Store Merchandiser. Armed with a verbal agreement and the confidence associated with youthful success, they hired and retained the existing staff of CSM only to have the deal fall through at the last minute.
Armed with that same confidence and cockiness and a staff of very competent professional writers and editors there really was only one thing to do—so they conducted a search for available names that would accurately portray their aim and mission and Convenience Store Decisions magazine was born. Having researched other existing c-store business magazines and concluding they lacked a focus on real store issues, the choice was made that CSD would be directed toward the decision makers—a still young, rapidly growing and oh so exciting segment of the industry. CSD quickly became a success and as Donohue stated, a real and genuine “gem” for the entire industry.
So, as the Staler Brothers sang, “let me carry you back and let you feel at home.” Imagine so many c-stores without MPD’s or Innovation TV with many using Gilbarco Mini T equipment pulsing fuel gallons and dollar amounts from the pumps to the counsel. And, can you believe some c-stores were still without canopies? Oh, and where were the energy drinks and shots? Coke’s Powerade had only been hydrating retail customers for about two years and there were still many of us who continued to think: “Why on earth would anyone buy bottled water when you could get it out of the tap for free?”
On a personal note, I thought my world was officially over when I turned 50 on Friday the 13th, of April 1990. Not quite, it turned out.
Growing an Industry
At the time, ATMs were considered on the cusp; can you imagine how we ever managed to live without the future conveniences of DVDs, cable, smart phones and laptops? Amazingly, a chain I used to work for, ran by legendary Convenience Store Hall of Famer Bob Seng, had opened its first store offering homemade deli sandwiches in 1971. Payphones were the norm then.
The Gulf War began Aug. 2, 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait and ended February 1991, driving gasoline retails as high as $1.34 per gallon. (CSD editor John Lofstock, incidentally, was serving on a submarine in the Gulf during the war). Not surprisingly, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 2,911 on July 30—over the next three months, the Dow would fall 18%.
Stocks weren’t the only deal in 1990. You could buy a Hershey bar for less than 50 cents, or sometimes on special four for $1, and a 6-pack of Pepsi for 99 cents or less. A pound of ground beef was less than $1.10 and bacon ran around $1.50 per pound. Comparably, the federal minimum wage for workers had just hit $3.80 per hour.
By 1990, Walmart was already the top U.S. retailer—the same year Nintendo introduced its Super NES Game. Apple was nearing its earnings power when Steve Jobs was pursuing a dual career running a computer company called “Next,” a precursor to a scrappy animation company named Pixar.
And through it all, CSD and its professionals have kept pace with the tremendous changes over the last 25 years, informing and enlightening not just the decision makers, but all who make their living in this wonderful industry.
Let us applaud CSD on the occasion of their 25th anniversary, along with the scores of convenience store veterans who did the heavy lifting so we might cling to those memories that never leave, and allow us to make new ones for the generations ahead.
Jim Callahan has more than 40 years of experience as a convenience store and petroleum marketer. His Convenience Store Solutions blog appears regularly on CSDecisions.com. He can be reached at (678) 485-4773 or via e-mail at [email protected].