For Americans, anytime is crunch time and salty snacks are the preferred craving crusher whether by the bagful, as an accompaniment to a lunchtime sandwich or by the bowlful while watching the big game on television. To increase sales in this category, convenience stores should position themselves as “salty snack central,” where shoppers can be…

Dayparts refer to times of day or meal times — traditionally, breakfast, lunch and dinner. C-stores typically do well with the breakfast and lunch dayparts. However, the pandemic disrupted foodservice across all channels and caused a significant shift in sales and in dayparts as people’s schedules changed and some avoided eating outside of the home…

Beef jerky (or ch’arki as it was first called) can trace its history as far back as the 1500s when the Quechua, part of the Incan Empire in South America, began preserving meat by drying it at low temperatures to prevent it from spoiling. Today, Americans still count on dried meat with its portability and…

America’s sweet tooth is alive and well. Garnering close to $2 billion in annual sales in the c-store channel, the sweet snack category is a diverse one. It encompasses granola and snack bars (for example, Luna, KIND, Larabar and Clif), snack cakes and prepackaged pastries, cookies, mini doughnuts and mini muffins. Some sweet snack products,…

What exactly are cigarillos? They’re not as large as cigars or even petite cigars, but not as small as cigarettes. They burn drier than cigars, but taste closer to cigars than cigarettes. Indeed, this other tobacco product (OTP) segment definitely commands its own identity and is a product family that fares well with convenience store…

What do consumers want from a convenience store’s candy category? That’s simple — everything. They want the full gamut of choices, from chocolates to mints, chewing gum, bubble gum, hard candy, stick candy, taffies, lollipops, caramels, licorice, marshmallow and more. They want their old favorites, the brands they grew up with — names they know…

Mobile wallets and use of mobile apps are expected to grow in 2021 as customers set expectations with retailers. “One of our recent customer surveys indicated that there is still a large gap in checkout expectations across consumer age brackets,” said Perry Kramer, managing partner at consulting firm Retail Consulting Partners. Of customers ages 18-37,…

There’s a lot of talk about “dayparts” in the convenience world. But what does the term mean, and what do retailers need to know about them? Dayparts refer to times of day or meal times — traditionally, these are breakfast, lunch and dinner. C-stores historically do well with the breakfast daypart, as many consumers make…

Few operators take the time to better understand both revenue projections as well as variable and fixed expenses so they can see what contributes or detracts from store profitability. A profit and loss (P&L) analysis provides a simple yet effective way of managing both revenue and expenses. When conducting a P&L analysis, small tweaks can…

Whether as a meal replacement or a protein-packed pick-me-up, jerky continues to entice customers as category innovation abounds. Convenience stores that focus attention on this category can become shopping destinations for meat snack lovers. While most people are familiar with the beef jerky stick, meat snacks also come in strips, bites and steaks made from…