In this episode of At Your Convenience, CSP Executive Editor Hannah Hammond talks to Art Sebastian, founder and CEO of NexChapter.
They spoke at CSP’s Outlook Leadership event in August about the Outlook Report, which details five outlooks for the convenience-store industry, based on the 2025 Outlook Report Survey and data from CSP’s sister research firm Technomic, NielsenIQ and Upside. The full report will launch in October, and it will also be featured in CSP’s October magazine issue.
Sebastian, who is also the chair of CSP’s C-StoreTEC advisory board, also talked about the speakers he is looking forward to hearing at the C-StoreTEC event, taking place Oct. 27-29 in Plano, Texas. Learn more about that conference here.
Listen to Hammond and Sebastian’s conversation above, or read the transcript here, which has been edited for length and clarity:
Hannah Hammond: What was the goal when you set out to do the Outlook Report?
Art Sebastian: The Outlook Report is really about looking forward and thinking about where we're going, not what's happened, but where do we go next? And what we've heard from retailers is they're looking for that thought-provoking ideation and helping them cut through all the clutter and think about what's next. And so that's what we aim to deliver. And I should say this report was made in partnership with CSP, NexChapter along with our data providers. So that would be Technomic, which is a sister research firm of CSP, NielsenIQ and then also Upside. So we got a lot of insights from them and from retailers in the industry to kind of populate all the data you have for this report. And I’m honored to be able to participate, and again, I had the chance to deliver the executive summary today on the main stage, but it was certainly on behalf of CSP and all of our partners. And just a quick note, today's delivery was really the executive summary. There's a significant amount of data and reporting that will come behind it in the full report release, which I'm sure we'll touch on.
Hammond: What was one of your main takeaways when you first looked at the report?
Sebastian: The report covers a lot of ground. We talked about the economy, we talked about fuel trips, we talked about loyalty and retail media and AI. Some of my most favorite topics we get into to … there’s an outlook around midsize retailers and their need to differentiate or exit, and that was a pretty sort of robust point of view, and generated conversation today with the audience. So that's one thing. The second thing that really resonated with the audience and me as I thought about it is the fact that strategy without execution doesn't win. And so now we've created a conversation around not just strategy but the need to get your company behind something and focus on execution.
Hammond: Another highlight I heard from the audience this morning was about using AI for labor and hiring. I feel like that's such a great application of artificial intelligence in the c-store industry—to use it for hiring and labor, which is always a challenge, and I think probably always will be. It's interesting to see people resonate with that point as well.
Sebastian: Labor is one of the most critical parts of our business, especially store labor. It's also one of our biggest operating expenses. And so how do you create efficiencies and effectiveness with it? I think we're also moving into this era of AI where it's beyond the hype, and there's more focus on, how is this practical? How do we use it to drive marketing? How do we use it to drive efficiencies and labor?
Hammond: Yeah, I know what you mean with “behind the hype.” I feel like a lot of times you're like, that's just a buzzword, it'll pass. But enough time goes by and you're like, ‘Hmm, this is sticking.’
So, like we touched on before, the full report is going to come out in October. And at our C-StoreTEC event, you're going to dive into it a little more, is that right?
Sebastian: We're going to unpack the report, and we're going to focus on driving action out of the report. C-StoreTEC is coming up in two months. Late October in Plano, Texas. We'll have a lot of the right people from the retailer side, we’ve got marketers, technology leaders, store operation leaders and several technology companies that are helping us navigate all this change. And so it just felt like the right time and the right place to dive a step deeper.
Hammond: And I know the C-StoreTEC agenda recently came out, too. Any speakers you're super excited for?
Sebastian: Yeah, I'm super excited about the entire agenda. Two speakers I do want to call out. Janeth [Falcon] from Circle K is going to take the main stage on day two. She's going to talk about the technology transformation at Circle K and how she's leading teams to drive efficiencies and effectiveness for stores.
I'm also really excited about the dynamic duo from RaceTrac, so Jamie [Miller] and Tyler [Grubbs] from RaceTrac. Jamie leads marketing, Tyler leads technology for marketing and stores. And they're going to talk about the importance of collaboration in making a big difference in the business. And I think it's going to be a really compelling conversation for the whole attendee base.
Hammond: And I know that a lot of the agenda is determined by the board and the steering committees. Can you talk a little bit about how you come up with what topics are important to retailers, no matter where they're at, maybe in their technology journey? What have you guys been working on all throughout the year?
Sebastian: We’ve always said C-StoreTEC is a full-year platform. Certainly, there's an event in October every year, but it's full-year because we've assembled an amazing advisory board with almost 30 retailers. And because there were so many retailers, we divided it up into five different committees, and we meet on a monthly basis to unpack all kinds of topics. And so we're talking about the role of AI, we're talking about foodservice, retail media, loyalty. We're talking about it all year long from concept to insights to what I consider a call to action, like what should the industry do? And now we're going to bring that to life at the event. And so it's been a conversation that's been started all year long and it'll come to life at the event.
Hammond: Did you have anything else you wanted to add?
Sebastian: I'm so happy to be here. I shared it on the on the main stage, I love this industry for so many reasons. It's big, it's growing. There's a community here, and I want to major kudos to CSP for putting on yet another amazing Outlook [Leadership] event. The location, venue, the content, the speakers, the engagement—it's all top notch, and I'm looking forward to accelerating in the back half of the year here.
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