The cost of operating a convenience store is up significantly thanks in part to a number of factors, the most glaring being interchange fees and credit card costs. But labor and utilities also experience significantly higher year-on-year gains. The industry’s operating expenses on a per-store, per-month basis rose across the board in 2007, according to…
Recession Rx for Business
In good times, running a company is exhilarating. Money is flowing, customers are happy, employees have a spring in their step. In not-so-good times, like now, the very same job can feel like scaling Mt. Everest in a snowstorm while wearing a knapsack filled with bricks and suffering from a bad case of the flu.…
Dunkin’ Donuts Offers Free Iced Coffee
Dunkin’ Donuts will host its second nationwide Free Iced Coffee Day on May 15, with plans to serve nearly four million cups of iced coffee to its customers at locations nationwide, the company said. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on May 15, customers can walk into any participating Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant in the U.S.…
Sam’s Club Launches ‘100 Days of Summer’
Today’s independent convenience-store operator faces a variety of challenges when it comes to running a successful business, and the rising cost of food and nonperishable items, lack of time and a lean staff can all impact the bottom line. With more than 25 years of experience helping small businesses succeed, Sam’s Club is uniquely qualified…
Couche-Tard, Irving Oil Expand Partnership
Irving Oil Limited and Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. today announced the expansion of their existing partnership to include 252 Irving Oil convenience retail sites across Atlantic Canada and New England. Couche-Tard and Irving Oil entered into a convenience retail partnership seven years ago in Quebec, though the newly expanded partnership will provide both companies with opportunities…
Alon Acquires Krotz Springs Refinery from Valero
Alon USA Energy Inc. signed a purchase agreement to acquire the Krotz Springs refinery from Valero Energy Corp. The purchase price of this transaction consists of $333 million in cash plus an amount for working capital, including inventories, to be determined at closing. Also, both parties have agreed to a five year off-take agreement along…
A Call to Arms
Richard Oneslager enjoys a good joke, so he couldn’t help sharing one of his new favorites. "Did you hear the one about the retailer who sat down with Visa to discuss his interchange fees? Of course you didn’t. Visa doesn’t sit down with retailers!" Oneslager, president of Balmar Petroleum and chairman of the National Association…
NACS SOI Reveals Mixed Results
Convenience store industry sales reached a new high of $577.4 billion in 2007, but profits dropped by $1.4 billion, largely because of higher credit card fees, the 2008 NACS State of the Industry report found. Overall, industry revenues climbed only 1.4%, leveling off an extraordinary decade of growth that saw industry revenue grow more than…
Fresh Look for Quick Chek
Quick Chek Food Stores, the Whitehouse, N.J. chain of more than 100 stores throughout New Jersey and New York, launched a new brand positioning complete with logo, private-label product packaging and enhanced Web site. With its new logo in the shape of a bright, lime green-colored letter "Q" with tail shaped like a dark green…
Couche-Tard Strikes Deal With Spirit Energy
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., Convenience Store Decisions 2007 Convenience Store Chain of the Year, reached an agreement to acquire 83 stores in Missouri and central the Illinois area from Spirit Energy. Of the 83 convenience stores, 69 operate under the Convenient Food Mart banner and are all company operated. The stores would be operated by the…