Marketing

In honor of Thanksgiving and all of those Black Friday sales, today we are going to talk about promotions.

Do you ever wonder if a promotion you run is profitable? Ever wonder if a promotional opportunity being offered by a vendor is going to drive sales and/or profitability? Do you wonder if you can you sell enough at the reduced price to make up for lost retail sales of profit margin dollars?

I receive a lot of questions from NATSO members on this issue. This fall I was asked during a travel plaza visit by a perplexed operator, “How do I know if I am doing the right thing when discounting an item for a promotion”?

To help shed some light on this quandary, I thought it would be helpful if I put together a worksheet on how to calculate the breakeven point. We’ve create a downloadable worksheet with formulas to calculate the breakeven point on a promotion.

As referenced in my last blog post on Eight Tips to Prevent Robbery at Your Truckstop, even if you are executing every preventive measure that is available to you and your staff, it is still possible to be robbed.

Consequently, it is important for every truckstop to have a robbery policy and procedure program in place should a robbery ever happen as not being prepared could have dire results.

The following general recommendations should be used in conjunction with your own company’s robbery action plan. At a minimum, use these recommendations to create the appropriate site-specific plan for your operation.

Important note: Be sure to ask your local law enforcement for their recommendations before following these recommendations.

We know e-cigarette sales are set to hit records and dairy sales are booming, but these three foodservice trends recently reported on Convenience Store News could surprise truckstop operators.

As the busiest time of the year in our industry approaches, it is imperative that we keep in mind safety. While we’ve written about retail and shrink preparation, today we are talking about robbery prevention and preparation.

While in general robberies within our industry are few and far between, they do happen. No one can guarantee that a robber will not come into your store. Even in the best operations robberies and thefts will and do take place.

Keeping the potential of a robbery in mind constantly, especially during the busy season, will help improve the safety of your operation, your customers and your employees.

Data collected over many years within the c-store industry points to some key items you can do to help reduce the possibility of a robbery. Many of these items will also drive your sales and profitability.

Electronic cigarettes have entered the tobacco category with a bang. There is an estimated 2.5 million e-cig smokers currently in the U.S., and analysts are projecting that sales of e-cigs could top $1 billion within the next three years alone.

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.

Foodservice may be a growing category, but the execution, sales and profitability of foodservice in retail outlets across the channel is extremely inconsistent. The top quartile of c-store foodservice sales averaged $1,200 per day in 2011, but the bottom quartile averaged only $135 in sales per day.

Overall, the snack category is one of the fastest growing and evolving categories. It is expected to grow at nearly two times the population rate through the year 2018, and 22% of snack UPCs purchased are items didn’t exist just one year ago.

Even as we enjoy the heat of summer, it’s time to plan for hot seasonal sales on cold winter days. When devising a holiday season promotional plan it’s important to consider your customer segments, their key demographics, and what needs they have on this seasonal travel occasion. With these considerations in mind, seasonal promotions will result in higher quantity, more profitable sales.

This week, the FBI arrested a man for stealing at least $100,000 from truckstops with fraudulent EFS TransChecks. Suspects often use a scam that has been around for years. The good news? You can stop it from happening to you.

NATSO’s Check-Link™ Check Verification Service is not only one of our most comprehensive member services, but also one of our most beneficial for cost savings and marketing to your driver customers. The following are 10 reasons why your location should be using Check-Link.