Jessica Starnes of Weigel’s and Michael Tirey of Circle K franchise have found ways to optimize the tobacco and cannabidiol (CBD) assortments at their respective convenience-store chains.
The two spoke at CSP’s 2022 Tobacco/OTP + CBD Forum, giving insights and tips on managing the evolving categories.
Starnes, category manager at Powell, Tennessee-based Weigel’s, recently installed new backbars at the chain’s 72 stores. The former backbar infrastructure made it difficult to meet the big tobacco contracts and have room for innovation, she said.
Weigel’s new 15-foot set maintained the same amount of space—6 feet—for cigarettes because they are only slightly declining, Starnes said. But now there’s more room for modern oral nicotine (MON) innovation and for products that were previously on the counter, such as wraps and newly added Nicorette.
To better learn about the behavior of Weigel’s tobacco consumer’s behavior, data is key.
Starnes learned that when someone came into Weigel’s and purchased cigarettes, about 13% of the time they also bought packaged beverages and carbonated soft drinks, and about 11% of the time they also bought energy drinks.
“This tells us that our cigarette customer is also our cold-vault customer. And that’s very important information to give to our operations team. We need to be sure that we’re stocking back bar, obviously, but keep cold vault stocked as well,” Starnes said.
She also analyzed data on the top-selling MON product, Zyn Wintergreen 6 milligrams, and found that customer was also buying proprietary Weigel’s items like coffee, fountain drinks, chocolate milk and pizza.
“From this information, we can determine the Zyn customer is a Weigel’s customer,” she said. “And we can begin to market them better.”
Managing CBD
Tirey, Tampa, Florida-based marketing manager for Circle K’s approximately 800 franchise locations, has also changed how products are displayed to increase sales—especially with CBD.
He’s implemented an open-shelf floor display for CBD products that is self-service and has no glass blocking it.
“People could touch, feel, hold and scan the QR code on the product,” he said.
There’s been a 71% increase in CBD sales since adding those open display cases, he said.
Third-party testing of any CBD product a Circle K franchise sells helps build trust. The company does its own testing to make sure CBD products contain what the packaging claims they do.
“We do it because we want to have customers understand that, ‘Hey look, we’re lab tested. You’re buying quality products at Circle K,’ ” Tirey said.
Experts shared insights like this and more at the forum, where other experts spoke about category management strategies, forthcoming regulation and cannabis consumer trends. Read more here.