Aug 07, 2012 CSNews MONSEY, N.Y. — A 7-Eleven franchise location in Monsey, N.Y., became the first convenience store in the country to offer a kosher hot dog. According to Newsday, the c-store added a second roller grill that was blessed by local Rabbi Zushe Blech. “The response has been overwhelming,” Anthony Mendicino, who has operated the franchise location with his brother for 13 years, told the newspaper. The c-store is located in the heart of Monsey’s Orthodox Jewish community. The new hot dog offering was the result of customers clamoring for the food, the news outlet reported. To prepare the hot dogs, the Mendicinos hired Sam Indig, a trained chef who is also an Orthodox Jew himself. Indig is cooking up seven kosher hot dogs and Polish sausages that are served on buns from a local certified-kosher bakery. The 7-Eleven franchise also offers a special condiment bar with toppings…

Aug 07, 2012 CSNews OTTAWA, Ontario — Graphic cigarette warning labels may be on hold in the United States but cigarette packages in Canada have featured the health warnings since last fall and they may not be having the intended effect, according to a new survey commissioned by Health Canada. According to the National Post, Health Canada commissioned Environics Research Group to do a baseline survey of smokers this past March. The project surveyed 1,505 Canadian adult smokers. The survey found that smokers overwhelmingly recognize smoking is a major problem; however, fewer than half of respondents consider the warning labels effective at changing their overall smoking habit. Specifically, nearly nine in 10 said they have seen, heard or read about the earlier health warning messages. One in three said they look at the warning messages at least once a day. Most smokers participating in the survey said warning messages provide…

August 8, 2012 The Age Once a scrappy auction site for mum and dad sellers, eBay is enticing some of the world’s largest retailers by arguing it can help them compete better against e-commerce leader Amazon.com. eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe and other executives have been telling retailers that Amazon is their enemy, while eBay is a friend because, unlike Amazon, it holds no inventory. Amazon buys products wholesale, stores them in inventory and sells them to consumers at higher prices – like all retailers. eBay says it just matches buyers and sellers. That message is sinking in, especially among brick and mortar retailers that are losing market share to Amazon. “As retailers look for new vehicles for growth eBay becomes a natural partner – a better partner than Amazon,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester Research. When RadioShack Corp reported a surprise quarterly loss last month, Chief…

This is one of the regular insightful articles in ‘The Age by Michael Baker. We are very pleased that Michael will be one of the excellent speakers at our ‘Convenience Leaders Summit’ on the 29/30 November. More details to come. Michael Baker August 7, 2012 The Age A new report by retail analysts Thomas Kierath and Crystal Wang at Morgan Stanley carries a title that many small shopkeepers will find a little dark: ‘Big retail getting bigger’. The analysts used data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Retail Trade survey to draw two important conclusions: first, and not surprisingly, that small retailers have lost a significant amount of market share over the past four years. The second conclusion is slightly more jarring: that the market share small retailers have lost is not likely to be coming back. This latter conclusion is based on an analysis of retail trade cycles during…

NACSOnline Aug 7, 2012 CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – The Gazette provided a detailed feature on the convenience store industry’s burgeoning foodservice programs. Citing NACS figures that show foodservice sales comprised 16.9% of $195 billion of in-store sales at convenience stores in 2011, the Gazette said, “[D]on’t think of them as gas stations. Instead, think of them as the place for pizza, doughnuts and maybe even some banana bread.” “Food is the future of our industry,” said Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of industry advocacy. “Our stores will become food stores that happen to sell gas rather than gas stations that happen to sell food, as they are perceived today. It will be a slow evolution, but it is happening for two important reasons. “From the retail perspective, the product is there, the distribution is there, the competency is there, the revenue is there and, from the consumer side, the demand…

CSD Staff Aug 07, 2012 C-stores launch Amazon Locker program in their stores to give consumers a more secure delivery program. Convenience stores are adding Amazon.com web lockers in the San Francisco area. Amazon.com has been expanding its Locker system after testing services in c-stores in the Seattle, NYC, London and the Virginia-area. The addition of the Northern California locker locations brings the total to at least 50 locker sites in the U.S., according to the company’s Website. The lockers allow customers to have their online purchases delivered and stored at convenience stores until they pick them up. The locker banks have been placed at c-stores and drug stores so that consumers can pick up packages at a time that’s convenient for them. “When customers ship Amazon orders to an Amazon Locker, they can pick up their packages at a time and place that’s convenient for them,” said Mary Osako,…