Topics: Marketing & Retail

Master a One-Day Sale with These 16 Tips

One-day sales can be a great way to add excitement to a truckstop and travel plaza locations and spike sales. During the most recent Operational Exchange phone call we discussed the role one-day sales can play during seasonal and/or holiday special events. After the call I received a handful of follow-up questions asking for more details on the concept of a one-day sale, which made me realize operators could use some standard operating procedure guidelines to follow when creating such an event. More

White’s Travel Center to Share Their Great Idea of a Pharmacy at The NATSO Show

In the fall of 2015, White’s Petro Stopping Center in Raphine, Virginia, added a number of new amenities, including a pharmacy. Owner Bobby Berkstresser first began thinking about adding the pharmacy when they added a doctors’ clinic in 2012. The truckstop is a rural area and is about 15 minutes away from the closest pharmacy. With the clinic now seeing as many as 70 to 80 patients a day and, of course, giving many of those patients prescriptions, he felt it was time to pursue his idea. Their first step was to do a demographic study, which study found that a pharmacy at their location could be profitable with local traffic alone. More

NATSO Show Speaker Shares: To Succeed, Be the Only One Who Does What You Do

As an entrepreneur, co-founder of Fast Company magazine and a best selling author, Bill Taylor understands what it takes for business owners to compete. While researching his latest book, Be the Only: Thriving in a World Where Best Isn’t Good Enough, Taylor gained even more insights into what it takes to thrive in today’s competitive market. Taylor will he be sharing his expertise as a keynote speaker at The NATSO Show, and shared a preview of latest findings with NATSO ahead of the event. More

Case Study: Lee Hi Travel Plaza Tries Higher Quality Coffee

As the recent trends towards higher quality, origin coffees filter through the market place, would they hold true at a travel plaza? Lee Hi Travel Plaza, a NATSO member located in Lexington, Virginia, embarked to find out. During a June 1–10 test period, Lee Hi’s standard house blend was switched, without fanfare, from Red Sky (2.5oz) to Guatemalan Highlands (2.75oz), both medium-roast, high mountain coffee blends. More

How to Know Your Truckstop Customer

I always highlight the importance of knowing your customer and understanding what your customers want, but operators frequently ask me what that means. They also want to know if it is going to be hard and where to start. I always tell them that, no, it isn’t hard, but it takes some time and effort to do it correctly. As so many of our members remind me daily, operators do not know what they do not know. Unless you have been taught how to spacewalk, chances are that when given the opportunity, you will not do well at that activity. So let’s walk through an example process of discovering who your customers are and what they want from you. More

WaWa Shares its Brand Building Tips at The NATSO Show

The convenience store chain WaWa is a leader in customer loyalty and food service, and during The NATSO Show 2014, WaWa executives shared their knowledge with truckstop and travel plaza operators. More

Truckstops Face New, Varied Competition

The truckstop and travel plaza industry is facing competition from a number of fronts. Last year in Stop Watch magazine, we covered some of those sources, including grocery stores and restaurants installing gas pumps and home improvement stores adding food offerings. These and other forms of competition are becoming much more formidable as our customers continue to be starved for time and as vehicles improve their miles per gallon. Not only are drivers stopping less, now more than ever they are looking for the closest, most convenient one-stop shop. Retailers are responding by offering them more opportunities to stop, shop and fuel, which may mean less opportunities in our locations. More

Seven Tips for Tapping Into Holiday Sales At Your Truckstop

In 2014, holiday retail sales reached $616.1 billion, the U.S. Commerce Department reported, and truckstops and travel plazas are well positioned to tap into a portion of those sales. But simply putting in holiday-themed merchandise won’t drive sales. To boost sales, operators have to market the right products at the right times. NATSO members joined together this month during an operational exchange conference call to share their experiences with holiday merchandising and offer quick tips to boost holiday sales. Here are seven key ideas operators shared during the call. More

Lessons From The NATSO Show: Suggestive Selling Adds Up to Increased Profits

For Herb Hargraves, director of fuel and retail sales at Cash Magic Truck Plazas and Casinos, suggestive selling is adding up to significant profits. Hargraves launched his company’s suggestive selling program several years ago and has seen it grow year over year. “The first year we made an additional $10,000, the next was $20,000 the next was $35,000. When I look at my year over year, it is a 1.5-3 percent increase,” Hargraves said while addressing operators at The NATSO Show 2015. “Those incremental rings can add up to the bottom line. As companies, we want to increase our sales and profits.” More

10 Ways To Be A Better Holiday Merchandiser Than Santa Claus

Yep, the summer drive is not even over and I am beginning to see holiday themes, gifts and toys popping up in big retail. Recently, on a trip overseas, I saw early signs of Christmas shopping at two of England’s landmark retail operations. So what does that say about your operation? Do you need to have Santa Claus, Rudolph, and a Christmas tree displays up now? Certainly not, but I hope that you have a plan in place to take advantage of the upcoming holiday season. Let’s cover a host of items you should have in place already. 1. You have noted on your calendar when your holiday shipments, winter additives and fourth quarter product will be arriving. You have made sure that your staffing needs are appropriately deployed to get this merchandise properly checked in, properly priced and properly displayed as soon as it arrives. More

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