As I pen this column, the dog days of summer are beginning, and 2021 is already half over. Given these past six months, it seems safe to say that the early days of the Obama administration were a cakewalk versus the political headwinds our industry now faces. The latest challenge involves underground storage tanks (USTs)…
What Do C-Stores Need to Know About Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency has been making headlines this year due to volatile swings in stock prices, moves and comments by big-name investors, particularly Elon Musk, and news in July that the Federal Reserve is “exploring the implications of fast-evolving technology for digital payments” and plans to issue a report later this year. Visa reported that more than…
PMTA Progress Update
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is under a court order to review and either authorize or decline to authorize — by Sept. 9, 2021 — the marketing of new tobacco products for which manufacturers submitted Pre-Market Tobacco Applications (PMTAs). But with numerous applications waiting for review, FDA is unlikely to meet the deadline. Background…
Five Foodservice Opportunities for C-Stores
Convenience stores have certainly upped their foodservice game over the past decade, and consumers have taken notice. According to Datassential’s recent “C-Store Foodservice Keynote Report,” a third of consumers reported that they have increased their food purchases at c-stores in the past two years, while nearly 40% said the same thing about beverages. Overall, 62%…
How Can Independent C-Store Operators Manage Requests for Proposal?
We select our store locations. We select our staff. We select the merchandise to carry; and, along those lines, we select our vendors. Selecting the correct vendors — in addition to managing these vendors during the selection process and beyond — can often be the difference between making your store profitable or simply providing real…
How Will Tobacco Tax Increases Affect Convenience Stores?
Tobacco tax increases aren’t going away any time soon, and their effect on convenience stores is substantial — but they’re nothing that resourceful convenience store retailers can’t handle. Tobacco is already among the most heavily regulated categories in the store, and tax rates have gotten out of control as lawmakers in every state use taxation…
Providing Leadership in Challenging Times
Yesway burst onto the convenience store scene in 2015, capitalizing on the real estate expertise of its founding firm Brookwood Financial Partners. The private equity investment firm launched the company with the acquisition of Country Stores, a 10-store portfolio in western Iowa, in December 2015. From there, it never looked back. In 2016, Yesway established…
Controlling Your Brand Identity
For many years, decades really, your retail brand was defined by the products you offered, the people you hired, the design of your stores and your corporate values. These were difficult things to master, but they were manageable with hard work. In today’s online-centric world, where social media and mobile messaging may be the only…
What Are Modified Risk Tobacco Products?
The term ‘modified risk tobacco products’ came onto the scene after regulators became concerned that tobacco products marketed using words like “light” or “mild” might give consumers the impression that the products posed less of a health risk than other tobacco products. Consequently, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, enacted into law in…
Shaping the Tobacco Back Bar
Last month, in a National Advisory Group (NAG) webinar titled “The Future of Tobacco: Reshaping the back bar amidst legislative threats and PMTA,” Grier Bailey, executive director of the Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association, shared key advocacy goals and considerations for convenience store retailers. “We have to protect — to the degree that we can…