In three short years, the convenience store industry has changed dramatically, and the changes will continue at a furious pace as the White House moves away from fossil fuels and pushes widespread acceptance of electric vehicles. The c-store industry has always had a couple of built-in hooks in its arsenal to attract customers. Chief among…
YEO Preparing Leaders for Real-World Challenges
Many years ago, when the National Advisory Group (NAG) was preparing to relaunch the Young Executives Organization (YEO), I reached out to John MacDougall, the venerable founder of Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes in New York, and asked him for advice. John was an excellent source for NAG because he believed in the association and…
Creating an Emotional Connection with Customers
It’s no secret that we are experiencing unprecedented times across retail. Customers now have access to anything and everything they want in seconds right from their smartphones. Delivery is available on demand for everything from a new car to breakfast sandwiches. Frictionless retail, where customers can walk into a store, pick up what they want…
Nurturing Leaders and Your Corporate Culture
Corporate culture must be well defined to best entice top talent to join your ranks. By John Lofstock In today’s competitive convenience store industry, your corporate culture values and what you stand for are just as important to customers as the products you sell. More precisely, it is what defines your brand in the community…
NAG Partners with Folds of Honor
Rocky Sickmann, who retired from Anheuser-Busch in 2016 and is a survivor of the Iran Hostage Crisis, understands the dangers facing our military servicemen and women. That’s why Sickmann joined Folds of Honor in 2016 as a senior vice president. With his involvement in Folds of Honor, Sickmann has been able to educate and encourage…
Join Us in Florida for the 2018 NAG Conference
By John Lofstock. The convenience store industry continues to grow sales at record numbers, but the stakes have never been higher as convenience store owners face competition from multiple retail channels. As competition increases across the board, savvy retailers are learning to take costs out of their operations to run lean, efficient top-quartile businesses. The…
Gasoline Muscling Up—Flips into Seasonal Backwardation
By Brian Milne Fuel Marketer Intelligence: Supply Chain Dynamics to Retail Fuel Prices The now expired May gasoline futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rallied to an eight-month high on the spot continuous chart before rolling off the board April 30, positioning the June contract to retrace the August 2017 high at $2.1705…
Weighing Odds and Ends
Within the daily operation of a c-store, small things carry as much weight as the big things. By Jim Callahan April 1 marks my 50th year in the industry—at the time I never gave much thought to the April Fools’ Day legend and would have ignored it anyway. Early on, I had the great fortune…
Readying for Transportation Trends
Whether it’s horse-drawn wagons, gasoline-powered cars or electrical vehicles, there’s opportunity for convenience retailers to become part of the transportation movement trending at the time. By Mark Radosevich While driving through a small town near my office in Tennessee recently, I was surprised to see an Amish horse and wagon tied to a hitching post…
Engaged Customers Are Loyal Customers
The convenience store industry continues to evolve and where it ends up as robotics and personalized delivery gain traction is anyone’s guess. But one thing for sure is that how customers feel about your brand and your services will likely determine where they make their purchases. Robbie Kellman Baxter, a business consultant focused on how…