14 Insights From CSP’s 2022 Outlook Leadership Conference

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Convenience-store leaders gathered in Asheville, N.C., last week for CSP’s Outlook Leadership Conference for three days of insights and sharing. During general sessions, innovation forums, events, networking and more, attendees heard discussions, ideas and tips about the economy, gasoline prices, hiring and much more.

Here are 14 insights that stood out …

The Rutter’s convenience-store chain earned top honors in the 2022 CSP/Intouch Insight Mystery Shop study. Danielle Holloway of sponsor Altria Group and Cameron Watt of testing firm Intouch Insight awarded Christopher Hartman, director of fuels, forecourt and advertising at Rutter’s, for the win. This is Rutter’s third win. The judging included both a revealed audit and covert shopping experience from Intouch Insight.

Watch for details in the October issue of CSP magazine.

CSP announced it will launch a new C-Store Women’s (CSW) event, designed to empower and develop women in the convenience-store industry, in November 2023 in Napa Valley, Calif.

This two-day, highly interactive event will combine career development education, problem-solving, networking and experiences designed to empower women as leaders in the industry.

CSW attendees will have access to:

• Two days at an upscale location with unique networking opportunities.
• Training and education led by top career growth professionals.
• Working sessions throughout the year.

For more information, contact Buehner at abuehner@winsightmedia.com or Britta Baarstad, senior director of marketing, at bbaarstad@winsightmedia.com.

Soccer star Mia Hamm came to the Outlook General Session stage not to relive great memories on the pitch, but to express her thankfulness to those who have committed themselves to driving equality for women in professional sports.

Hamm, hailed as the greatest women’s soccer player in history, thanked those who made Title IX happen and the athletes who have proven the value of the 1972 Education Amendment that protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs, including athletics.

“I’m grateful to the pioneers that led the way,” she said. “And we’re seeing more women’s sports on TV. [That] shows some progress, that we’ve committed to it.”

Hamm, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup Champion, retired from the sport in 2004. Today she’s raising two girls and a son of her own.

Thanks to the pioneers she admires, she said, “My girls see themselves as having the same opportunities [as boys]. … I wish we got to the point where we didn’t need Title IX.”

Inflation is weighing heavily on consumers, according to economist David Nelson, founder and president of Bellingham, Wash.-based Study Groups. Dealing with inflation is viewed as the top priority that consumers want Congress and the president to deal with.

Eighty-three percent of Americans describe the current economic situation as “poor” or “not so good,” Nelson said.

How is that affecting consumer’s purchasing choices?

Nearly half of consumers said that because of rising prices on everyday necessities, they were switching to cheaper alternatives, Nelson said, citing a survey released in July by the National Retail Federation.

Nelson also asked the question on many people minds: Is the United States in a recession? Not yet, he said, but “a modest one” is likely. “The forecast and outlook isn’t all that bad.” 

Ninety-four percent of consumers are part of a loyalty program, according to Cameron Watt, president and CEO of mystery-shop firm Intouch Insight. But only 53% of those surveyed said they were part of a loyalty program at a gasoline-convenience store.

There’s a land-grab opportunity here for c-stores, he said.

“The cool thing about loyalty and customers, besides the obvious, is that it gives you the ability to engage with them in a meaningful way,” Watt said, adding c-stores can get valuable research and insights from them.

The employment team leader of the future in the coach, according to Seth Mattison, author and employment expert.

“I know,” he said during his General Session presentation at CSP’s 2022 Outlook Leadership Conference in Asheville, N.C., “I’m just looking for warm bodies, and you’re talking about holding out for applicants who present themselves as coaches.” But he noted three significant advantages to seeking coach-like qualities:

1. A coach doesn’t come across as bossy. “A great coach doesn’t tell their employees what to do,” Mattison said. “The best leaders ask the best questions. This helps their employees find their own inner wisdom.”
2. A coach provides a goal or vision. “A good coach naturally cast a bigger vision of the brand and the individual” that works for him or her.
3. A coach creates a farm system. “I hear it often: The stores are where all our greatest talent comes from,” Mattison said. “Employees who make their way up [into leadership] become advocates for your brand. You need to incentivize them” to talk up your company as an employment option.

Click here to read more from Mattison.

The need to deliver a special and personalized experience to customers is even greater now that consumers’ wallets are being squeezed by inflation, agreed representatives of Rutter’s, Yesway, Casey’s General Stores and payment-firm Cardlytics during a panel discussion.

“There is no more convenience channel. Convenience is now a need state, and everyone in retail is working hard at being convenient,” said Art Sebastian, vice president of digital experiences for Casey’s, Ankeny, Iowa.

“Obviously, the price of oil this year has been volatile like no year before,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for Boston-based GasBuddy, during his General Session talk.

In a rapid-fire presentation about what’s behind the volatility, DeHaan pointed to OPEC, the war in Ukraine, a loss of U.S. refining capacity and other global trends as the main culprits behind the volatile price of oil this year. DeHaan speculated that there is a risk that margins could be squeezed as the United States enters hurricane season.

“There’s no normal anymore,” he said.

In the unprecedented economic times consumers are living through today, how can legacy retail brands find new reasons for customers to frequent their stores? The tension between nostalgia and newness was discussed at length in a General Session panel that included representatives from Stuckey’s, Wawa, TravelCenters of America and Yesway.

For Stuckey’s, the key is letting go of what used to work and embracing what must work moving forward. “We respect our past, but we don’t live in it,” said Stephanie Stuckey, CEO of Stuckey’s Corp. “We are a nostalgia brand.”

Tough times are no time to pull back on marketing spend, according to Stephanie Stuckey, CEO of the Stuckey’s Corp. and granddaughter of the founder of the c-store chain that got its start in 1937 selling pecan log rolls and rubber alligators to travelers. She’s working to rebuild the business, which currently has 65 licensed stores, after years of relative neglect.

Stuckey, though, has a background in urban sustainability—not in business or convenience stores—and said she thought EBITDA was a Swedish rock band. Nevertheless, she knows the power of a solid brand identity and customer-facing narrative.

“If you’re small, you have to work hard on marketing,” she said. “Our future is in selling snacks and candies and road-trip nostalgia.”

Need evidence the merger-and-acquisition market in convenience stores remains strong? Representatives from Raymond James Financial, St. Petersburg, Fla., offered five positive indicators:

1. Industry Dynamics: Ongoing consolidation in a fragmented industry, driven by benefits of scale in the face of demand headwinds and operational challenges.
2. Equity and M&A Market Multiples: Despite recent pullback in public-equity-market valuation multiples for c-store operators, mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A) multiples remain at cyclical and historical highs.
3. Demand for Quality Assets: Necessity to achieve scale and challenges to generate organic growth heightened demand for quality retail assets.
4. Supply of Quality Businesses: Buyers willing to pay a premium for quality businesses of scale in strategic markets (such opportunities are extremely limited).
5. Lending Environment: Debt capital remains readily available on relatively attractive terms. While interest rates are rising, they remain historically low.

During a roundtable segment of a General Session about getting through the labor crisis, retailers had an opportunity to share ideas and programs they’ve put in place over the past three years, and even before. Some of the suggestions they shared:

• Embrace word-of-mouth to draw applicants: Good people are usually close to other good people.
• Tighten up interviewing and testing to make a job offer sooner in the process.
• Create short videos so applicants can see just what they’ll be doing during a workday.
• Share the things current employees like about their jobs.
• Attend college job fairs, highlighting both hourly positions and career opportunities.
• Present possible career trajectories specifically for applicants right out of high school.
• Build job advocates among current employees through incentive programs.
• Adopt a scaled hourly wages: The more hours you work, the more you’ll be paid.
• Include entire families in company celebrations: Rather than a fancy holiday dinner, host a family-friendly summer picnic.
• Offer both full- and part-time opportunities.

Click here for more ideas.

Read more about The Search for Talent in the August issue of CSP magazine.

Retailer Jocelyn Miller of Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores added two more suggestions for overcoming today’s hiring challenges: technology and the employees themselves.

“Embrace exit interviews,” said Miller, manager of operations, workforce management for the Oklahoma City-based chain of nearly 600 stores. “These interviews help us figure out the root of turnover.”

Love’s has also found great success in adopting a wide-ranging suite of human-resources technology. “We’re supporting 33,000 field team members and 60,000 with corporate employees,” she said during an Innovation Forum titled How Love’s Fueled Success by Optimizing Store Operations. “It’s a lot to solve for, [but] when you take care of employees, they take care of customers.”

Love’s began working with Reflexis Systems in 2017 and has since adopted several of its workforce management solutions to solve for analyzing HR data, easing shift scheduling and improving workflow checklists.

“Hiring is not all about wages. It’s scheduling, culture, environment,” Miller said. The result of focusing on all these things? “During the height of the pandemic, we had the lowest turnover we’ve ever seen.”

Dedham, Mass.-based Reflexis Systems was acquired by Zebra Technologies, Lincolnshire, Ill., in 2020.

Consumers are purchasing more salty snacks, sweet snacks and wine and liquor in 2022 compared to 2021, reported Charlie Lang, chief product officer at Skupos. Lang shared data from the San Francisco-based analytics company’s network of 15,000 independent and small c-stores.

“These are trends that honestly started before the surge in gas prices, but people are buying more of certain items and less of certain items in c-stores in the trips that we’re seeing today,” Lang said.

One highlight: Snacks are doing well despite the category having the highest price increases in recent years, he said. Categories that had a decrease in unit sales include candy, packaged beverages and tobacco.