BATON ROUGE, La. -- It's a strategy that has been slowly growing for about eight years, but the addition of television sets at Cracker Barrel convenience stores in Louisiana is giving customers another reason to visit the chain's 54 stores and maybe spend a little more money on site.
We wanted to give the customer more than they expect, company president Jim Bickley told CSP Daily News about the TV sets that are dialed into the Weather Channel or a cable news channel 24 hours a day.It actually started at a big interstate store. We thought that [image-nocss] people always wanted to know what the travel weather was.
While seldom a company to roll out a program in a single swoop, Baton Rouge, La.-based Cracker Barrel has slowly been adding TVs to stations as they're built or remodeled. Every new store and any major remodel of an old store now get TVs at the pump, Bickley said.It was just kind of the way we do things.
With the store slogan Freedom of choiceWe have more than you expect, Bickley said he believes that the TVs are a natural fit.This [slogan] was always meant to apply to the merchandise selection that we have and the many different services that we offer, he said.[But the TVs are another] way of giving the customer more than they expect.
While the company has so far avoided using the televisions for store-specific advertising, Bickley said he has seen other benefits. We think it helps to deter crime by having the additional sound at the pump island. Plus, I believe that a customer never feels alone at the pump island.
The overall affect is a reinforcement of one of Bickley's personal mottos: I believe our customers just need to slow down a second, take a deep breath and maybe feel like they have a moment to actually shop.' [Then maybe they'll] spend a little more money in our store.
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