GAINESVILLE, Georgia. -- A call from a Mansfield Oil Co. dealer wanting permission to accept an offer to become a Greyhound bus stop lead the national distributor to one of its most unique and potentially transformational retail offers. "Of course we told him 'yes'," an official with Mansfield told CSP Daily News.Once the Dallas-based bus service altered its route to the store, inside sales doubled, said Richard Cosmer, vice president of retail sales and operations for Mansfield. Over the past year, they followed up with four other test stores and saw the same results.[image-nocss]
"On a bus route, there are 35 people on average on board who are now coming into the store every day," Cosmer said. "To our pleasant surprise, the ridership started using more goods and services in the store. So if you get the right product mix and foodservice and understand what the ridership wants, it's an opportunity."
Greyhound needed to better manage its network of bus stops going forward, Cosmer said, looking for longer-term contracts with site owners and finding more suitable, cost-efficient places to drop passengers. Ultimately, its search led to the partnership with Gainesville, Ga.-based Mansfield that the companies announced last week (click here for CSP Daily News coverage).
And potential sites do not have to be the size of travel centers, Cosmer said, trying to dispel any unwarranted expectations. A location that can handle a rollover car wash is a potential site. Initial assessments involve the location of current bus stops, number of passengers and how often busses pull up. "For one or two buses a day, a typical c-store can handle [the traffic]," he said. "Now if you have three, four, five or six hundred people a day--not to mention people dropping folks off and picking them up--at that point, you need a mini travel center."
Other elements of the package include the following: A standalone device for ticketing and freight sales. The device mimics other retail point-of-sale (POS) registers, so Cosmer said cashiers will already be familiar with the device and the processes involved. Staff. Buses come at regular times during the day, so operators can appropriately man the store for everything from ticket sales to increased customer traffic. A clean site. Proper restroom facilities for the number of people estimated. Uniformed staff. Either store uniforms or Cosmer said they can supply Greyhound uniforms. "We have similar standards when we select an operator as you would if branding to Shell or Chevron or Texaco," he said. Internally, the main motivation to seek out such a partnership was to support its customer base of fuel retailers and differentiate itself as a supplier. "One of our driving forces is the viability of our operators," he said. "In our world, the fuel supply agreement is what we have. If the operator is not viable long term, then the contract isn't worth anything."
Cosmer pointed out two additional components to the program. A little-known fact about Greyhound is that it offers package-delivery service, much in the same way FedEx or UPS does. Because buses run multiple times a day between cities, "sometimes deliveries are quicker than FedEx," he said.
In addition, Mansfield said it sees its internal priority as securing fueling contracts, even though retailers do not have to have a Mansfield contract to obtain a Greyhound stop. But it is a plus for Greyhound in that the fuel distributor is looking to sign clients on for 10-year fuel contracts, which leads to greater stability for that bus stop.The new partnership is part of an ongoing effort to assist its retailer base, Cosmer said. About five years ago, the company launched its "preferred network program," which it designed to bring operators a broad range of profitable, in-store programs."So conceptually, if you think about how to drive more people into the store, Mansfield has always been looking to do that," Cosmer said.
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