Industry News
CSNews Reveals This Year’s Top 100 Convenience Stores
Don Longo May 17, 2012 CSNews JERSEY CITY, N.J. — 7-Eleven Inc. continues to pull away from the pack as the U.S. convenience industry’s largest chain by number of stores. In the past year, the Dallas-based division of Japanese c-store giant Seven & i Holdings Co. widened its store count lead over Big Oil companies Shell Oil Products US, BP plc and Chevron Corp., and even Canada-based c-store giant, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., which operates the Circle K brand in the United States. While the industry remains highly fragmented, the Convenience Store News’ Top 100 convenience store chains added approximately 1,700 net new stores in the past year, a 3-percent increase to 59,434 stores. All together, the Top 100 account for 40.1 percent of the convenience industry’s 148,126 stores, according to Nielsen TDLinx, which supplies much of the store count data for the CSNews Top 100 list. In general, “pure” convenience…
Read MoreGrocery shoppers plied with rewards
Georgia Wilkins May 21, 2012 The Age Customer loyalty incentives are often not what they seem. AUSTRALIA’S big two supermarkets have stepped up their battle for shoppers’ hearts and wallets in the past month, with revamped loyalty cards designed to keep baskets full and customers faithful. But as shoppers are greeted with the latest sales pitches, experts warn the super-sized rewards programs on offer at Coles and Woolworths are likely to benefit companies more than consumers. Last month, Coles launched its new FlyBuys and my5 programs to help customers reduce their spending at the checkout. The my5 program gives registered customers the option of picking five items for which they wish to receive a 10 per cent discount. Customers have to spend more than $50 to receive the discount. Woolworths tried to one-up the offer last week, offering 20-40 per cent discounts on hundreds of specified items for users of…
Read MoreThe app crisis alarming retail
May 19, 2012 The Age As consumers increasingly consult their smartphones during their shopping trips, the old ways of doing business are facing irrelevancy. ON DECEMBER 10 the world’s biggest online retailer, Amazon, sent chills down the spines of traditional retailers when it called on its army of millions of customers to take to the shops with their smartphones and use the Amazon barcode scanner application to scan the prices on any three toys, electronics, sporting goods or music. The prize? Five per cent off the price of each Amazon product in return for each bar scan. The endgame is to build a lethal database of price comparisons to wage against their competitors in the dog-eat-dog fight for the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on retail each year. Apps such as Amazon’s Price Check have been dubbed killer mobile apps because they empower customers to get real-time pricing information…
Read MoreLoad up on shopping savings
David & Libby Koch News Limited newspapers May 21, 2012 IT SEEMS with every trip to the supermarket the bill gets bigger. It’s a struggle to go pick up the essentials and be left with much change from a fifty these days. Grocery shopping is an expensive exercise and unfortunately it’s not about to get any cheaper. We’ve been enjoying falling prices for some items as a line of products rebound from last year’s floods and cyclones. But that’s about to change, with the Federal Budget forecasting a rise in the Consumer Price Index next financial year. So what can you do to cut your food bill? Over the years we’ve tried and tested several strategies and found these eight tips to be winners. 1. Be conscious of location of items If you’re not already, look at where the market-leading products are placed on the shelves – usually at eye…
Read MoreRetravision Southern enters voluntary administration
May 21, 2012 Another electronics retailer has succumbed to a slowdown in consumer spending and a shift to online shopping with Retravision Southern being placed into voluntary administration this morning. The retailer’s demise is the latest blow for the sector which has been under increasing pressure and has seen a string of profit drops and store closures in recent months. The traditional retailing business model has been challenged by consumers’ embrace of online – rather than store-based – purchasing, with the strong dollar accelerating the trend. Bryan Webster and Leanne Chesser of KordaMentha have been appointed as administrators of the company which supplies products and support to 104 privately owned franchises in Victoria, Tasmania and southern New South Wales. “The company’s ability to operate as a going concern had been impacted by the industry wide decrease in consumer discretionary spending being experienced by retailers,” said Mr Webster in a statement…
Read MoreMcDonald’s, KFC face supersize rates slug in obesity fight
John Masanauskas Herald Sun May 15, 2012 REVEALED: FAST food giants such as McDonald’s and KFC face big fat rate increases in a new attack on the obesity crisis. A Melbourne council will consider hitting major fast food outlets up to 400 per cent more on their rates in a move backed by dieticians and health groups. Darebin Council’s move could be followed by other councils concerned about the spread of junk food chains despite warnings about illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. Darebin councillor Gaetano Greco said council was investigating a rate slug to discourage and penalise major food outlets. “Councils have the responsibility of looking after the health and wellbeing of their community,” he said yesterday. “Here we are, looking at an extra tool that council can use to limit or control the spread of fast-food chain outlets,” Mr Greco said. Councillors voted to explore the option…
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