Is high employee turnover inevitable or solvable in convenience stores?
That is one of the questions Jeffry Harrison, co-founder and president of Richmond Heights, Missouri-based Rovertown, asked panelists Jon Bunch, director of marketing and business development at Huck’s Market, Carmi, Illinois, Kristina Anderson, chief service officer at Midwest Petroleum Co., Manchester, Missouri, and Chuck Ryan, president and CEO of Ambest Inc., Brentwood, Tennessee, at CSP’s Outlook Leadership conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, during the session Spicy Takes 3.0: What Retailers Really Think.
“I do believe in our industry that high turnover is inevitable,” Anderson said. “I do think there are things that we can do to stem the tide and keep the people we want on our bus, but our industry will always attract entry level team members that don’t know what they want to do with their careers.”
To mitigate this challenge, Anderson said she offers her team a simple solution.
“My advice to my team on a regular basis is let’s not hold onto them let’s promote the customer,” she said.
When it comes to retaining staff, Ryan answered that building a culture where people feel valued is important.
“You have to create some kind of upward mobility within your organization to retain staff,” Ryan said.
Coming out of COVID, Bunch said Huck’s Market raised its standards with employee retention, which has lowered turnover. “We also incentivize our store managers, division managers and our regionals in a bonus structure.”
The growing popularity of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, WeGovy and Mounjaro was another topic of conversation for the panelists to dive into when asked whether merchandise has changed?
Ryan, who is in the travel center business, said there should be new options but it’s important not to change the entire menu.
“We’ve been trying to get to that health and wellness for a long time and GLP-1 is just another tool there,” Ryan said.
Because of the cost of these drugs, Anderson doesn’t think they have fully penetrated the market.
“Our employees and our customers in our more legacy footprint stores are not really on GLP-1 medications because of the price point so those stores are pretty protected from it,” she said.
She did reveal, however, that Midwest Petroleum Co.’s newer stores are showing softness.
“We are starting to do more individual portions,” she said.
Turning to Gen Zers, Harrison asked the panelists how to capture that customer.
Convenient methods of payment are needed for Gen Zers to be a loyal customer, said Anderson.
“They don’t even recognize cash,” she said.
Most of my team is under the age of 30 and they see the trends of this generation, Bunch said.
“If you have Gen Zers on your staff don’t count them out,” Bunch said. “You will be amazed at what they bring to you.”
In a fire round of questions, the panelists were asked which c-store retailer they are most jealous of.
Bunch answered with two retailers: Wawa, Pennsylvania-based Wawa and Altoona, Pennsylvania-based Sheetz because “people seek them out.”
As a truck stop operator, Ryan said he is most impressed by Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores, Oklahoma City.
“There are lot of truck stops in the country, and they execute well,” Ryan said.
When selecting a retailer, Anderson chose Tulsa, Oklahoma-based QuikTrip praising the retailer’s foodservice.
“They do food excellently well in their stores and they have that execution down,” said Anderson.
QuikTrip is No. 9 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count, Wawa is No. 10, Sheetz is No. 13, Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores is No. 15, Martin & Bayley/Huck’s Market is No. 55 and Midwest Petroleum Co. is No. 119.
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