There’s no denying it: Ransomware is a growing industry. Ransomware attacks have increased 41% since the beginning of 2021, and 93% year over year since last June per cybersecurity firm Check Point. The list of victims includes not only the Colonial Pipeline, but also prominent local businesses such as a community college in my hometown,…

Renowned character Clark Griswold may not have held gas station sandwiches in high regard, but a lot has changed since he declared, “I’m so hungry I could eat a sandwich from a gas station,” in the 1983 movie “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” Some 38 years later, many convenience stores are now held in high regard as…

Renowned character Clark Griswold may not have held gas station sandwiches in high regard, but a lot has changed since he declared, “I’m so hungry I could eat a sandwich from a gas station,” in the 1983 movie “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” Some 38 years later, many convenience stores are now held in high regard as…

Few companies were as prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic as Domino’s Pizza. Having built its digitally enabled, off-premise infrastructure for nearly a decade, the company was positioned to thrive in a climate where many customers were stuck at home. The Domino’s app isn’t just an add-on to the customer experience. For many, it is the…

It’s a difficult hiring market. Standing out isn’t easy, and sometimes it takes more than competitive wages for retailers to attract and retain top talent. I’ve always been fascinated by those who succeed in creating truly exceptional work environments. That’s why, at a time when brands are scrambling to figure out what they can do,…

Each year, it seems a new retail technology arrives on the scene ready to change everything. The challenge is sorting through the hype to determine if it has the potential to deliver a return on investment (ROI). Remember beacons? When they became popular beginning in 2013, beacons promised robust business intelligence and the ability to…

Throughout the decade, fuel and convenience retailers will be tasked with answering a simple question: “why will the customer of 2030 visit my store?” Roadside retailing faces a variety of disruptive headwinds that threaten long-successful business models. The report’s five authors call for an immediate repositioning around the needs of people rather than vehicles. “The…

I wonder what we’re going to say when we look back at this time in five or 10 years? I recently had dinner with a few people close to me, and I discovered that they’ve maintained a detailed list of each place they visited outside of the home since the beginning of COVID-19. It lists…

Discussing cleanliness and safety isn’t always easy for retailers.  Much of their hard work happens behind the scenes in ways that aren’t apparent to consumers, and there has never been a simple and effective way to communicate brand standards. This was apparent over the past year as retailers worked to maintain brand trust during the…

I had a good laugh the other day from a photo posted on Twitter.  I follow a retail analyst who, like me, seems to have an ironic appreciation of poorly executed stores. The focus this time was a CVS in Scottsdale with its endless rows of garish “buy one, get one free” stickers dangling below…