Dairy is a Booming Category – Is Your Truckstop Taking Advantage
Editor’s Note: The McLane/NATSO Foundation Index is one of the many knowledge resources NATSO produces in our quest to deliver solutions to help NATSO members make good business decisions.
The index is produced quarterly and offers NATSO members the opportunity to compare their average weekly convenience store purchases with those of travel plazas and truckstops serviced by supply chain provider McLane.
The 2nd Quarter McLane/NATSO Foundation Index was recently released. Members may sign in here to read the full McLane/NATSO Foundation Index.
To commemorate the release of the recent index, McLane has shared their industry expertise again in the form of their “Ask a Category Manager” series. McLane produces this downloadable category information monthly. Over the next few days, Darren Schulte will be exploring the topics covered in the “Ask a Category Manager” series from the truckstop prospective. - AT
Dairy is a Booming Category – Is Your Truckstop Taking Advantage
As referenced in McLane’s “Ask a Category Manager” on frozen, deli and dairy categories, “As the economy continues to improve and consumer discretionary spending rebounds, products in dairy, deli and frozen doors will thrive. Our country’s march toward a healthier lifestyle, coupled with the explosion of Greek yogurt, has resulted in a booming dairy category—up an astounding 14.47% since 2011.” (Download the “Ask a Category Manager” on frozen, deli and dairy category here.)
What does this mean for truckstop operators? Below are two ways this trend can be applied to your truckstop sales.
Local Traffic
Dairy, deli and frozen foods have the ability to harness your local traffic. For example, at my last fuel retailer we noticed that when we ran promotions on gallon milk in select areas of the country, our fuel gallons increased as well as our inside sales. These select locations where located next to communities that would not be considered middle class or well off.
Digging further into the trend, we noticed that, in particular, our Monday and Friday evenings had the largest increase in fuel gallons and inside sales.
Digging even further using our basket item analysis, we discovered that a quart of oil was the number one thing purchased besides fuel when customers purchased a gallon of milk.
What did we learn when we really analyzed the trend? Monday is the beginning of the workweek and folks purchase milk for the week on Monday. Similarly, Friday is the end of the week and thus time to replace the gallon of milk purchased earlier in the week to prepare for the pancakes, french toast and big breakfasts often enjoyed on the weekend. Also, the less affluent often have the least reliable cars, thus the need for a quart of oil now and then.
By executing these milk promotions, we went from selling a few gallons of milk weekly to selling hundreds of gallons of milk weekly. More importantly, we attracted hundreds of new customers weekly. Overall we saw many categories grow by larger percentages using milk promotions as the hook. Try a similar promotion and see if the same results at your truckstop.
Breakfast Drinks
Additionally breakfast drinks are growing in popularity. As folks become more health-conscious, these drinks are replacing meals.
Breakfast drinks have a very good margin and very high retail ring.
If you do not have the space and/or the financial resources to create destination zones with open-air reach-in or walk-about coolers, be sure to set your traditional standard walk-in cooler in departments just like the rest of your retail operation. In other words, place items such as milk, milk-like products, coffee drinks and slim fast together and place items such as meat, cheese, burritos, fresh fare, fruits and sandwiches together.
/// Post provided in partnership with NATSO Chairman's Circle member McLane. McLane is a highly successful $34 billion supply chain services company, providing grocery and foodservice supply chain solutions for thousands of convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores and military locations, as well as thousands of chain restaurants throughout the United States. Learn more about McLane.
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