Photo Credit: Jules Clifford/NATSO
All truckstop and travel plaza operators are working to get customers in the door and to the cash register, and a well-planned retail strategy can do just that. Yet all too often, business owners are trying to be everything to everybody, which can do more harm than good.
“There is usually a very big disconnect from the reality of an operator’s actual store and the type of customers shopping there versus their actual merchandising strategy and tactics,” said Darren Schulte, vice president of membership at NATSO.
To increase their success, top truckstop and travel plaza operators should have plans and processes in place to help them manage the fundamentals on a daily basis and craft a retail strategy based on the key customer group locations are trying to attract...