‘Zenput Opportunity’: A Broken Mic Stand and a Fallout With Guitar Center
A couple of days ago, a friend messaged me saying she had an authentic “Zenput moment.” What did that mean? I was intrigued! My friend is a hobby...
C-store: Tobacco Products vs. Healthy Future
Something in the convenience store industry seems awry. On one hand, the industry is pushing fresh, prepared foods on its menus. On the other hand...
If C-store Food Sales Are Up, Why Is Industry Optimism Down?
“Summertime and the livin’ is easy,” Ella Fitzgerald famously sang. This year, retailers have expressed optimism about summer sales and with good...
Restaurant Monitoring Done Right
Repeat after me: Restaurant video surveillance isn’t the end-all solution to your operational needs. Now more than ever, video solutions are extremely...
Back-to-School Shopping 101: What Retailers Should Know
Just when school lets out, back-to-school advertising begins. Already on July 14, AdvertisingAge published an article on Target’s back-to-school...
How a Major C-store Retailer Used Zenput to Unlock Hidden Potential
Communication and time efficiency. They can set your organization apart from the competition, or they can prove to be your Achilles’ heel. How much...
Is a Restaurant REIT the Right Move for Darden’s Olive Garden?
Is it a matter of financial success or a move that indicates a larger operational problem lurking beneath the surface? Ultimately, that’s what...
The Secret to Cutting Energy Costs in Restaurants
How well-versed are you in your restaurant energy costs? Here are three things you may not realize when it comes to the energy costs of restaurant...
How to Hire & Retain the Right Retail Employees
“Your people make all the difference. The only thing your competitors can’t copy is your culture and your people.” – Mel Kleiman, expert on hiring the...
EV Charging Stations: The Next Frontier for C-stores
This may sound shocking (intentional word play), but EV charging may actually be good for the convenience store industry. You might remember a...
Auditing Branded Gas Station Forecourts Can Increase Supplier Payments
Branded gas station operations are an interesting business. According to NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing, approximately half of...
Rewinding the Clock in Packaging
About a year or two ago, out of sheer curiosity, I asked my friends, part of the Millennial generation of consumers, about the types of products they...
How Much Time Should You Spend at Your Franchises?
If you’re a franchise operator who feels like you’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately, you might be told to “join the club.” Maybe your...
Restaurant Operations Lessons from In-N-Out Burger
When Lynsi Snyder speaks, people listen. The 33-year-old billionaire owner of In-N-Out Burger, the sole heir to her family’s fortune, makes rare...
What Supermarkets Can Learn from Costco
Costco Wholesale Corp. is the rebel of retail. As a wholesale club, it doesn’t advertise to non-members. There are no bright lights and flashing...
3 Reasons Why Mystery Shopping is Dead
It’s time to toll the bell for mystery shopping programs. Some retailers may be resistant to the change, and it’s sure to disappoint some faithful...
Improving Restaurant Labor Productivity with Mobile Technology
The minimum wage debate is a hot-button issue facing the restaurant industry right now. Los Angeles just became the largest city in America to raise...
Gas Station Restaurants Cater to Classic American Fare
In 2010, Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing, effectively summed up a growing industry trend: “We're...
Motivating Your Retail Employees
President Teddy Roosevelt will forever be tied to Big Stick ideology, which has the mantra “speak softly and carry a big stick.” It was his foreign...
5 Lessons from C-store Mergers & Acquisitions
The saying “when it rains, it pours” doesn’t have to have a negative connotation. In the c-store industry, it is raining mergers and acquisitions, and...
How to Optimize C-store Cold Vault Sales
Convenience store managers should think of the cold vault like it’s the Super Bowl. It’s a highly competitive event for c-store operations, and...
The Impact of Food Delivery Apps on Operations and Brand Image
Food delivery is a natural progression in an age of convenience through mobile technology. Essentially, restaurants had a twofold, industry-wide...
The Changing American Mall Landscape
Photo by Kishjar, via Flickr Is the American mall really dying? A lot of news outlets would have you think so. Before ringing the death knell, however...
Dollar Store Operations: 3 Lessons from Dollar Tree and Family Dollar
It’s official! Dollar Tree will divest 330 Family Dollar stores to a private-equity firm in order to address federal regulatory concerns related to...