Hello!

Welcome to the 10th edition of Always Be Convenient, your guide to navigating today’s digital world as a brand that depends on brick-and-mortar retail.

As I’m writing this we are hours away from the industry’s biggest event of the year – the NACS Show.

The event attracts more than 23,000 attendees from around the world. They come to learn, to share ideas, and to get business done. And in that regard I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to do just that.

I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, making new connections, and forging deeper relationships with partners. A lot can get done when everyone’s conveniently located in the exact same space. 😉

Thanks to everyone that’s helped with my survey these last few weeks. If you’ve not shared your opinion yet, it’s an easy one-question survey that will help me shape the future of this newsletter. Hearing your feedback is crucial for me.

Conveniently,
Mike

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Being convenient

In my first issue of this newsletter, just 10 weeks ago, I shared a quote:

This is something I often heard from executives during my time at Casey’s. Chief among them was Darren Rebelez, Casey’s President and CEO at the time.

Casey’s began in 1968, with a single store in Boone, IA. It wasn’t until 16 years later that Casey’s now famous made-from-scratch pizza was introduced. Today, some 40 years since the first pizza was served, Casey’s has built its business around pizza.

But it hasn’t been easy. Much has changed in four decades, including the demands of the customer — who wants their needs met now.

And while this simple line above seems obvious, it was profound when Darren shared it from the stage at Groceryshop in September 2022.

It was part of Darren‘s fireside chat with Bonnie Herzog, a long-time industry analyst, in which Rebelez described how Casey’s had ramped up its digital efforts in recent years.

It was all about being convenient for the customer. If Casey’s was going to continue to win in the market – a space being encroached on by dollar stores, drug stores, QSRs, and delivery apps – it needed to be more convenient than other consumer options.

Do you think about that when you consider how you do what you do?

Competing for convenience puts us in competition with everyone. And many other choices consumers have are not bound by the same limitations of our industry.

But even in our challenges, convenience retail has remained resilient. We have followed where our customers are taking us.

In fact, when you reflect and look back at how far we have come as an industry – it has been 60 years since we first started offering self-serve gasoline – you realize what a journey it has been.

In more recent years you’re seeing the even greater impact of channel blurring. Who you are as a brand and where you are located matters much less than what you can provide and when.

With new experiences flooding our stores – like pay at the pump, ordering kiosks, loyalty programs, mobile apps, and self-checkout – many of them are transplants from other innovations and retail formats. Though their presence shows their importance to the customer.

One thing convenience has been great at is scaling solutions to customers. And that’s thanks to the 160 million customers this industry sees on a daily basis.

With that many people interacting with something, you’re bound to get feedback about what’s working or not. And finding what works for your customers – digital or not – is what being convenient is all about.

If you want to remain relevant, you have to be convenient.