When executed well, a loyalty program becomes a convenience store’s lowest-cost form of marketing, said Billy Colemire, senior director of fresh food, dispensed beverage and loyalty at Majors Management.
Colemire spoke at CSP’s Outlook Leadership conference in August with Peter Rasmussen, the CEO and founder of Convenience and Energy Advisors, St. Petersburg, Florida.
“It's cheaper than advertising, more efficient for redemption than traditional promotions and when done right, it makes every active program member more profitable to you,” Colemire said of loyalty programs. “Notice what we're not saying. We're not here to pitch the latest shiny AI tool. We're here to show you how to make better money with a loyalty program that you already own.”
- Majors Management is No. 32 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
Convenience stores should use their loyalty program as a profit engine, not a discount engine, Colemire (pictured below) said. He encouraged c-stores to think differently about promotions.
“Sometimes it's not the product or even the discount that changes the behavior. It's the way you phrase the offer,” he said.
One example Colemire gave was with an energy drink promotion. A retailer could phrase an offer on Red Bull several ways: Buy two, get one free. Free when you buy two. Or buy three, save 20 cents per gallon.
The last of those offers transforms a standard promotion.
“Customers don't just think about the drink, they think about the magic of that roll back when they're fueling up,” Colemire said. “The value feels bigger in that example. All be it, the same as far as funding. And it ties to your brand in a stronger way, saving them more money on fuel which is a very price-sensitive commodity.”
He also provided a different way to think about deals for professional drivers.
“Competition for diesel is very fierce, and the reality is, for personal drivers a rollback in the pump doesn't always make sense,” Colemire said.
A 2024 National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO) professional driver survey found that professional drivers value two things most: Clean restrooms and a meaningful loyalty program.
“Let's rethink the incentive,” Colemire said. “What if we awarded drivers with nourishment and energy?”
For independent drivers paying their own bills, the lowest fuel price may still win them over. But for the company’s driver who doesn’t feel the pump prices as much, “this loyalty works like magic, and is better understood than offering simple points,” he said.
“The takeaway is this: We use our marketing technology of loyalty to speak directly to what professional drivers say they want the most,” Colemire said.
Majors Management, Lawrenceville, Georgia, has more than 250 stores. It’s an owner, developer and operator of convenience stores and a distributor of branded and unbranded motor fuels.
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