CSP Magazine
CSP Kitchen: Brown Bags, Bridge and 'Chutes
We pick the most c-store-ready selections from Restaurant Business’ annual “50 Great Ideas.”
CSP Magazine
Guest Column: In 2014, the Big Got Much Bigger
A comprehensive review of 2014's convenience-store merger and acquisition activity
At this year’s Convenience Retailing University, being held Feb. 4-6 in Dallas, we will pull together as a true community to raise funds to fight Melanoma, which has tragically affected the lives of thousands, including two members of our own industry: Lynn Wallis, president and CEO of Wallis Cos.; and Mark McKinney, senior vice president of operations for Huck’s/Martin & Bayley Inc.
Healthy kids’ meals ranked No. 4 in the National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot 2015 Culinary Forecast,” a survey of nearly 1,300 professional chefs. Also on the list were whole-grain items in kids’ meals (No. 14) and fruit/vegetable children’s sides (No. 19). But are convenience store-operators taking any notice?
Welcome to the second year of the Top 101, and we at CSP can’t say enough about how interesting it has been to compare this year’s list to last year’s. Looking at the new store counts shows just how the landscape is changing for some of the big boys (and the small ones, too). We detail those whirlwind changes on this report.
As I look at the convenience-store model today, I see 24-hour operations, huge physical and costly stores with restaurants, bakeries, 20 fueling spots and so much more. Although some retailers have not changed their model much in the past 25 years, many of them are seeing decreasing sales and customer traffic per store.