Industry News

Customers have been frequenting convenience stores for their affordable prices, greatly improved food selection, and, well, convenience. Texas-based Buc-ee’s even has its own cult following. Yet it’s Kwik Trip, a Wisconsin-based gas station chain with 900+ locations across the Midwest, that topped this year’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) convenience store study with 84 points, compared to Wawa and Sheetz’s 82, and Buc-ee’s 79. BP-owned ampm came in last at 73. Why? Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at the ACSI, said via a release that the top convenience brands don’t just sell coffee and snacks, but build communities. “As in-store sales outpace fuel and digital tools become table stakes, the brands that will win are those that double down on quality, innovation, and authentic connection,” he said. So how exactly does a c-store build a community? Morgeson noted that because…

In announcing an Illicit Tobacco National Disruption Taskforce – the third major Federal government initiative in recent years – to try and halt the illicit trade in tobacco and vapes, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke made it clear on Sunday that anyone taking payments for these products is potentially enabling criminal gangs. “The same criminal groups are involved in organised tobacco; you’ll have some of them involved in forms of arson, you’ll have some of them involved in the drug trade, they’ll be involved in child exploitation — all of these things start to interlink,” Burke said. The companies who are currently enabling these gangs – be it directly or at “arms length” providing backend payment connections – may include Australia’s big banks CBA, NAB and Westpac, backend payments providers CUSCAL and Fiserv, and card schemes Visa, Mastercard, eftpos and AMEX. They also may include payments service providers like Square…

Australia is at a pivotal moment in its transition to a circular economy – one where materials are reused, recycled, and kept in circulation for as long as possible. At Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), we believe innovation is the key to unlocking this future. But innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It needs the right conditions to thrive. The problem: Risk, scale and uncertainty At a recent industry roundtable we co-hosted with The Coca-Cola Company and Planet Ark, one message came through loud and clear: while Australia has the ambition and the ideas, we need to do more to bring circular economy solutions to life. A major barrier is the challenge of de-risking and scaling first-of-a-kind recycling and resource recovery projects. These are new technologies or facilities that haven’t been tried at scale before, like advanced plastic recycling. They often struggle to attract private investment because of regulatory uncertainty and…

The three-month grace period for NSW retailers and wholesalers to apply for a licence to sell tobacco or non-tobacco smoking products is over. All retailers must now hold a valid tobacco licence and display it at the point of sale. Those who continue selling products without a licence will face penalties. Retailers or wholesalers who submitted an application by 1 October 2025 can continue trading until notified of the outcome. The government has also passed the Tobacco Legislation (Closure Orders) Amendment Act 2025, increasing penalties for unlicensed sales and illicit tobacco activity. Maximum penalties rise to $660,000 for individuals and $880,000 for corporations. The Act allows closure orders of up to 12 months for premises selling illegal tobacco or vaping products and introduces new offences for commercial possession and sale of illicit tobacco, with penalties of up to $1.54 million, seven years’ imprisonment, or both. Ryan Park, Minister for Health,…

LAKE JACKSON, Texas — Just off Interstate 75 in Georgia, a bright-red cartoon beaver smiles from a billboard that simply reads, “Cleanest Bathrooms in America – Next Exit.” For road-weary travelers, that’s not just a slogan, it’s a promise. When they pull into the sprawling Buc-ee’s parking lot minutes later, they are met with 100 fueling positions, clean restrooms with stalls twice the size of any competitor’s, walls full of house-made snacks, aisles of branded merchandise, 30-plus checkout lanes and associates making fudge, carving barbecue and mixing nuts. It’s part convenience store, part roadside attraction and all Buc-ee’s. “Buc-ee’s is unique in its ‘retailtainment’ positioning. They take the mundane and turn it into a mega-experience,” said Polly Flinn, founder and principal of Flinnstone Strategies, a Chicago-based business and retail strategy consulting firm. “Once you pull off the interstate, you realize that all of the cars on the highway are following…

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is propping up profits made by US credit card schemes at the expense of small businesses and consumers by failing to regulate almost $2 billion they charge in fees each year, the Independent Payments Forum (IPF) said today. Scheme fees charged by card schemes, including US payments behemoths Visa and Mastercard, make up a significant proportion of the merchant service fees paid by businesses like community pharmacies, newsagents and cafes to enable card payments. These fees, which the RBA estimates to amount to $1.8 billion (net after rebates) a year, are currently not subject to caps. Scheme fees are charged by all card schemes including Visa, Mastercard and Australia’s debit card network, eftpos. It is estimated that eftpos scheme fees are a little over $100 million, while the dominant players Visa and Mastercard make up the bulk of the remainder. Whilst the RBA has…