A “quick” year as chairman of NACS has Brad Call in a reflective disposition.
Calling it a “groundwork-laying” year for a number of issues, Call, executive vice president of adventure culture for the 264-store North Salt Lake, Utah-based Maverik Inc., said his time with NACS was indeed an adventure in itself.
Q: What were your biggest achievements during your term as NACS chairman?
A: This was a groundwork-laying year for a number of initiatives. In terms of food-menu labeling, the FDA is trying to shove a one-size-fits-all rule down our throats that’s not going to work for our industry. Most of us aren’t restaurants.
Then there’s the issue surrounding E15 fuel. We continue to worry about the liability we’re exposed to as industry. One of the issues is with our delivery system: All of our pumps are certified for E10 but not E15. And cars of a certain age can’t take E15.
This being an election year, the legislative wins were few and far between. There’s not a lot of legislation being passed. But we have made strides internally with our Fuels Institute within NACS and what will soon be our Marketing Institute.
Q: Can you give us an update on those initiatives?
A: We spent the year getting the Fuels Institute off the ground. It’s about positioning NACS as the experts on the future of fuels, so we can be a source for well-balanced legislation.
Our Marketing Institute ... will be designed to help retailers become more sophisticated marketers of our products and offers. It’s about advertising, community relations, social media and mass media. And as an ancillary goal, it’ll help us with the idea of “not in my backyard,” or NIMBY. Right now, we’re looking at schools to partner with to help us be better marketers.
Q: What were your personal highlights as NACS chairman?
A: For me, associating with these professional staffers has just been tremendous. But also, I’d say the time I’ve gotten to know my brothers and sisters in industry. My company is richer for it and so am I. There’s wonderful people out there. They’re dedicated and they care about their businesses. They have energy and passion. And there’s more legislative engagement than ever before, especially for NACS’ Day on the Hill.
Q: Can you tell me more about that?
A: Members of Congress listen to their constituents. They’re more excited by someone in their district telling them about their challenges vs. a lobbyist in a suit. I’m excited about the tremendous strides we’ve made. For example, we’ve got two members of Congress coming to our Maverik stores soon. And it’s not just us, but grass-roots teams across the country are having lawmakers come in, do so some computer-based training and run the registers. It’s great public relations for them, and it builds trust between our industry and members of Congress.
Q: What other issues will continue to be of concern after your term ends?
A: We tackled debit and got swipe fees reduced but suffered a setback with an unfavorable court ruling. We’ll continue to fight that to get a reasonable debit-fee structure. And we continue to fight credit-card fees that are way out of control.
NIMBY is also an issue we care about. We sometimes shoot ourselves in the foot. Some stores are doing a wonderful job, but there are companies who don’t take enough pride to prove to communities that they’re an asset. It’s difficult to move the needle with small operators, but we’re trying to wrap our heads around it and raise the perception of our industry as a whole.
Q: Any advice for the incoming chair?
A: This organization is well run, with no need for a course correction. But to the extent we can band together, that should be our goal. Steve [Loehr] is terrific and he’s got a terrific company in Kwik Trip. They’re innovative and forward-thinking, especially
in the energy and healthy-food arena. They’ll be able to get us all excited about those initiatives.
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