“In a business like cigars, where unit volume is growing 10% plus year-over-year, emerging strategic thinking in convenience retail suggests that retailers can grow even faster by employing a “price-for-volume” strategy for key products.” David Bishop, partner, Willard Bishop This summer, we examined how convenience retailers could manage the cigar category differently to realize above-market…
The Pulse of the C-Store
The convenience store front counter provides the perfect canvas to showcase a mix of hot new items and profitable impulse buys that will grab customers’ attention. But experts agree that this area is among the most underutilized selling place in the entire store. Boosting impulse sales at the front counter is extremely important because the…
Balmar Petroleum Rebranding to 7-Eleven
RICHARD ONESLAGER, PRESIDENT of Firsthand Management LLC, the retail operating arm of Balmar Petroleum, a petroleum fuels distributing company headquartered in Centennial, Colo., has finalized a deal with 7-Eleven Inc. making him a 7-Eleven Business Conversion Program (BCP) franchisee for his stores in Northern Colorado. The 10 stores that will be franchised with 7-Eleven will…
Susser Raising $200M for T&C Deal
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS-BASED SUSSER HOLDINGS, operator of 330 convenience stores in Texas and Oklahoma under the Stripes banner, is in the process of acquiring San Angelo, Texas-based Town & Country Food Stores, operator of 140 c-stores in Central and West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, for $361 million. To fund the transaction, Susser has priced…
Kum & Go Launches New Coffee Line
KUM & GO IS ASKING customers to “Taste the Difference” with Java Ridge—the company’s new premium coffee line, which was introduced at its more than 450 c-stores in 13 states. The launch of Java Ridge Premium Coffee is the culmination of an 18-month search by Kum & Go for the best tasting and highest quality…
Double Kwik to Sell 57 Local Stores
WISE, VA.-BASED DOUBLE KWIK Markets has entered into plans to sell its 57 convenience locations to Mechanicsville, Va.-based GPM Investments. GPM plans to convert the entire Double Kwik chain to its Fas Mart brand across Southwest Virginia and Tennessee. According to David McComas, CEO of GPM, the acquisition is a “natural extension of where we’re…
THE GIVING SEASON
Green H. Oil Co.’s five company operated stores kicked off its main fundraiser of the year—The Empty Stocking Fund— by collecting $3,000 in just 10 days. According to Green Oil’s Director of Marketing Jim Callahan, the company hopes to exceed the $20,000 it raised last year that assured 1,100 children woke up to presents under…
Pay by Touch founder and CEO files for personal bankruptcy
Pay by Touch founder and CEO files for personal bankruptcy, facing a backlash from investors and employees. Just two weeks ago, Convenience Store Decisions reported that Shell Oil became the first gasoline retailer in the world to adopt Pay by Touch’s biometric payment technology at its pumps and inside convenience stores to add more convenience…
mso no more
Shell announced that it is removing the multi-site operation model from the U.S. going forward. What does this mean to the company and Big Oil as a whole? Shell Oil Products turned headslast month when the oil giantannounced it would be disassemblingits multi-site operator (MSO)partnerships across the country to continueits strategy of putting the stake…
cenex gets in style
Generation Image Renewal program calls for the renovation of the chain’s 1,600 convenience stores and the addition of 550 more. Cenex, the convenience-retailing brand of CHS Inc., islaunching a multimillion-dollar rebranding and expansioneffort that will elevate the chain’s visibility in smalland major markets and enhance its overall competitiveviability. As part of its “Generation Image Renewal,”…