By: John Matthews, founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises Inc. The lease is up at your existing location, and the new center down the street is happening. The thought of relocating your business is daunting—when will you find the time and will you lose customers? An important decision faces your brand—do you relocate your…
Thriving on Teamwork
Getting one store back in order in just two-and-a-half days proved to be the ultimate retail challenge. By Jim Callahan. One of my retail clients recently had to take back two failed convenience stores—that were in extremely bad condition—from a franchisee on a Wednesday and wanted them back online by the weekend. I love a…
The 2012 Convenience Retail Outlook
Economic uncertainty is causing retailers to be cautious as they plan for the upcoming year, but investments in technology, social media and foodservice appear to be expanding. By David Bishop, Contributing Editor. The outlook for 2012 depends largely on the focus of the question. What is clear based on the CSD/Balvor 2012 Convenience Retail Outlook…
The Business of Growing
Overcoming the top nine challenges for effectively growing your retail business requires true leadership and patience. By John Lofstock, Editor. The hardest step entrepreneurs take is getting their startup off the ground once and for all. The second hardest step is growing it into the best business it can be. What today’s entrepreneurs and aspiring…
Tesco Exits Japan
The British retailer pulls out of Japan, leaving many to speculate on the future of Tesco’s struggling U.S. venture Fresh & Easy. Tesco has announced it is pulling out of Japan after eight years of heavy losses, leaving some analysts to speculate on the fate of Tesco’s embattled Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets in the…
Celebrate the Reason for the Season
It makes not one iota of difference whether you believe in Santa or celebrate Christmas to make a difference in someone’s life at this special time of the year. We all recognize that 2009—like no other year in the past 50—has created a genuine and critical need that provides both an opportunity for all of…
On Location with CSD
It isn’t often one finds a c-store with a hanging chandelier and a fireplace in the office, but Dave Carney’s Hillside Chevron Station in Torrance, Calif., is anything but conventional. This April, the store began a major renovation, transforming what was a traditional c-store into a site with charming old-world Santa Barbara style; a Spanish…
Choosing the Right ATM
With the number of ATMs in service across America rising and their average transaction dipping for a decade, convenience store operators face a variety of choices in how they choose to deploy them. Viewed as revenue generators or simply services for customers, cash machines present c-store executives with a variety of options and challenges, beginning…
Cash Management
TOP PERFORMERS Tidel Engineering Triton Systems Brink’s Inc. HONORABLE MENTIONS Armor Safe Technologies Tokheim Operators in any retail channel will find it impossible to survive in today’s environment without a secure, accurate and reliable cash-management system, though convenience retailers in particular are faced with added challenges on this front. A tough economy increases theft internally…
How Foodservice Impacts Profits
Dennis Peters has no complaints about the proprietary fresh chicken program at two of his 24 Friendship Foods stores in Ohio. It’s popular, it’s profitable and it’s been a proven concept for the past 12 years. Well, maybe there’s one complaint. It’s a little too fresh. Not “peck-you-on-the-hand-when-you-grab-it” fresh, but certainly fresh enough to see…