Cross-Merchandising

Wayne Rudneski, owner of three White Owl Convenience stores in Virden, MB, says his meat snack sales have grown in recent years with the addition of new suppliers, flavours, formats, and high-quality ingredients. Now, the emerging category makes up 1-2% of his overall c-store sales.

Michele Gerard’s popular Atlantic News location in downtown Halifax, NS is known for its wide availability of magazines and newspapers from around the world, but while Gerard deals mainly in the printed word, she also places an emphasis on her convenience sales with the use of eye-catching point-of-sale materials...

Despite declines in the gum category the past three years, convenience-gas retailers can still find ways to rejuvenate their gum sales by bringing this impulse category to the front of their stores and, as a result, the forefront of their customers’ minds...

For the fourth consecutive year, Excel WHITE has teamed up with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation to run its well-known consumer campaign, Chew Because You Care. C-store retailers can get involved with this important partnership by making room for the promotional prepack in store...

When Steve Friesen is waiting in line at a store, he finds himself looking for last-minute deals to add to his basket. That’s why, as the owner of Thornview Grocery in Morden, MB, he uses promotional displays near the cash to incent his customers to pick up an extra item or two.

At the junction of Highway 83 and Provincial Road 257 in Virden, Man. is a c-store, car wash and petroleum site called White Owl Convenience. Wayne Rudneski, who owns three White Owl locations with his brother, has been in the c-retail business since the 1970s. This retailer is known to spend 15 hours in his store every day – dedication which he believes gives him an advantage over his competitors...

Consumers are often looking for something quick to tide them over between meals, and the c-store is often the go-to destination to fill this need. Retailers can build on the excitement around bestselling snacks like potato chips, tortilla chips and nuts by also stocking innovation that captures emerging trends.

Think of any positive shopping experience you’ve had. Its success was likely a result of how easily you found what you were looking for and how long it took to make the purchase. This may seem like retailing 101, but being efficient is an increasingly difficult task in the convenience-gas channel, where customers are extremely time-pressed, and new SKUs constantly flood the market. But one key merchandising tool offers retailers a surefire way to simplify the in-store environment: planograms.

Where constantly changing is the name of the game, Ray White is a perfect example of a retailer who doesn’t hesitate to make changes to his Agassiz, BC video and convenience store. Until a year and a half ago, MovieSource Convenience & Video was focused primarily on video. But when video stores lost steam and White noticed consumer demand shifting, he converted completely to a convenience store and turned his attention to improving his in-store environment with point-of-sale materials.

Take two minutes out of your day to watch this video, which features Roland Park, owner of IDA Milk and Variety in Toronto. He'll walk you through three ways to profit from promotions. If you follow these simple tips, you might just see a lift in sales!