NEW YORK -- The big-box behemoths all lined up with the same bad news: record-high pump prices were unnerving inside sales. Wal-Mart reported its first quarterly income decline in a decade and partially blamed rising fuel prices. Home Depot said steep fuel prices were putting pressure on the consumer's spendable income.
What about the convenience store industry? Is this sector of neighborhood outlets carrying the casket of ailing national sales? [Click here to register for today's CSPNetwork [image-nocss] CyberConference: How's Business 2006: Mid-Year Report. The first 50 retailers and wholesalers register for free.]
The answer, surprisingly, is no.
An exclusive report by month-to-month benchmarking specialists CSX LLC, based on 75 same firms with roughly 4,000 stores, shows these operators have, so far, substantially avoided the impact from pinched wallets. Through the first six months of 2006, total per-store total inside sales for CSX's population were actually up 7%, topping last year's mid-year performance.
There have been slight gains in fuel gallons sold per store and nice gains on inside sales resulting in higher gross profit dollars, CSX co-founder Dr. David Nelson told CSP Daily News. But unfortunately all the volume and gross profit dollar gains went to feed the credit-card companies (from higher pump prices) and higher operating costs so we have to find more resourceful ways to retain some of the top line gains on the profit line.
Later today, Nelson will break down the mid-year performance of CSX's database in a CSPNetwork CyberConference, scrutinizing key inside categories, drivers and potential impediments to the industry. This will be a timely analysis courtesy of McLane Co. and Radiant Systems.
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