A new study, sponsored in part by ADT and its Sensormatic Retail Solutions group, revealed the need for retailers to focus on technology solutions that enhance their current operational goals and combat theft without adding labor costs. They study, “Loss Prevention 2010: Retailers Battling Shrink in Touch Times,” found that during these challenging economic times,…
Healthy Options Push Salty Snacks
TOP PERFORMERS Frito Lay Cheez-It (Kellogg’s) Chex Mix (General Mills) HONORABLE MENTIONS Combos (Mars) Cape Cod (Lance) Pringles (P&G) The down economy has inspired a consumer trend toward eating in and choosing less expensive home-entertainment options, which has been a boost to the salty snacks category. Customers are likely to choose snacks they perceive as…
Baked Goodness
TOP PERFORMERS Oreo (Nabisco/Kraft) Kellogg’s/Keebler Chips Ahoy (Nabisco/Kraft) HONORABLE MENTIONS Bon Appetit Mrs. Freshley’s (Flowers Foods) Prairie City Bakery Sweet snacks purchases are on the rise at convenience stores creating new sales opportunities across all dayparts. Packaged sweets accounted for 2.6% of the $114,010 stores acquired through average monthly sales in 2008, according to the…
Targeting Customers with Prepaid
TOP PERFORMERS PaySpot (dba epay) Coinstar HONORABLE MENTIONS Incomm First Data Prepaid services are changing the way customers do business. Low-income families, unbanked and underbanked customers, students, those with poor credit and customers that spend much of their time on the road are among those taking advantage of prepaid debit cards and bill services that…
Roll-Your-Own Climbs Amid Tax Hit
Mounting cigarette costs are driving smokers to test cost-effective tobacco alternatives, such as roll your own (RYO). The 2009 NACS State of the Industry report, which polled 156 retail firms with 20,553 stores as of December 2008, found that pipe and cigarette tobacco sales had the strongest growth of all tobacco products and were up…
Nice N Easy Named CSD’s 2009 Chain of the Year
Nice guys do finish first. Nice N Grocery Shoppes Inc., the Canastota, N.Y. operator of 82 convenience stores, was named Convenience Store Decisions’ 2009 Convenience Store Chain of the Year. Nice N Easy will be honored at an invitation-only gala at the Wynn Las Vegas during the NACS Show on Oct. 21. “The last line…
Pizza Palates Changing
Fast Facts About Pizza • Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza each day, or about 350 slices per second. • Pizza is a $30 billion per year industry. There are approximately 69,000 pizzerias in the U.S. Approximately three billion pizzas are sold in the U.S. each year. (Source: Blumenfeld and Associates) • Pizzerias represent…
Foodservice Boosts Retail Growth
Not doing foodservice? Then you better start thinking about it. That was the key message from a host of retailers, consultants and foodservice experts as CSD presented its 2009 Foodservice Webcast Series. In fact, just having food items is hardly enough. Chains need to invest in specialty fare and ethnic cuisines in order to differentiate…
Understanding the Hispanic Market
Describe your perfect customer. No doubt it would be someone who shops at convenience stores more often, spends more money during each trip and buys across more categories. According to the Greenfield Online/Mintel Hispanic Consumer report, you have just described the Hispanic consumer market. As the current recession continues to put a strain on retailers,…
Three-Mile Marketing
As John Matthews sees it, a store languishing in mediocrity is a store that has become wallpaper in the halls of retail. “Generally, when starting a business, it’s easy to get people excited when its new and fresh,” said Matthews, founder of Chicago-based retail marketing firm Gray Cat Enterprises. “After a few years, though,…