I was reading an article this week regarding the sales crunch that many businesses put themselves under during the last quarter of the year as a means to make up for the first three quarters. Think that will business as usual for 2009? Last weekend, we watched as Phil and Tiger attempted to make up [...]

It never fails. During this time of year — when the trees are just starting bloom, the days are ever so slightly longer, and we have that rogue week or two of perfect 70 degree weather — I come down with what my father used to call “beach fever”. Apparently, I am not the only [...]

In our last article we discussed the importance of not forgetting the fundamentals of store appearance and basic store marketing. While you can get buried in data and the day-to-day store challenges, we must keep the basic fundamental processes in place. One of the fundamentals is being certain you are aware of competitive fuel pricing.  [...]

Recent studies predict that c-store operators can expect to continue with moderate sales growth in 2009 with inside sales increasing anywhere from 3% to 5%.  Sounds like a decent organic growth, right? However, given higher product and inventory carrying costs, this sales growth will equate to no real bottom line growth and, in fact, actually [...]