Convenience Stores

CVS Pharmacy continues to make a concerted effort to transform its stores, with the goal of fostering a better customer experience.   The retailer on Wednesday officially unveiled a new store design to enhance the retail customer experience with a new assortment of healthier food, health-focused products and expanded beauty selections, paired with informational signage throughout the store to help customers discover new offerings. The retailer hosted an event at The Garage in New York City on Wednesday to showcase the enhancements firsthand.

FreshDirect, Subway and The Cheesecake Factory have added a new item to their menus — conversational commerce.   Through a partnership with MasterCard, the three brands are now using artificial intelligence (AI)-based bots to enable consumers to browse menus, build orders and securely checkout via Masterpass — all without leaving the Messenger chat-based platform.   

Native advertising is significantly spurring in-store traffic — at a more cost-efficient rate — compared to traditional display advertising.  

GNC Holdings’ income and revenue declined in the first quarter, but the company said it is encouraged by the results of its marketing and pricing revamp.    Net income totaled $23.9 million, or 35 cents per share during the quarter, compared with $50.8 million, or 69 cents per share, in the year-ago period year. Adjusted earnings were 37 cents per share, which was above estimates.   Revenue totaled $644.8 million during the quarter from $668.9 million last year, but still above estimates. 

Wal-Mart Stores is still considering a possible entry into the food retail market in India.   With new rules  allowing for  100% foreign ownership of food retailers selling goods produced in India, Krish Iyer, the president and CEO of Wal-Mart India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wal-Mart, said the chain is “evaluating” the guidelines, reported The Economic Times. His answer came in response to a question as to whether Walmart was planning on entering the market.  

Nearly 50 years after it opened its first location, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has landed on the West Coast.    The chain, which combines a family-friendly restaurant with an old-fashioned country store, has opened Tualatin, Oregon. The location marks a key expansion of the company’s footprint.  

7-Eleven is putting all of its policy data in one place — a move that will enable it to better mitigate risks connected to insurance and claims.   The convenience store chain added the Risk Management Information System (RMIS) from Riskonnect, to power its claims management, policy management and property data collection processes in the U.S. and Canada. The cloud-based system breaks down silos to provide a holistic view of risk management.  

A messaging app launched a new lens that could help drive shoppers through retailers’ doors.   Snapchat’s Snap to Store product is a geofilter that retailers can sponsor.    When Snapchatters use the retailer-specific overlay on their snaps and share it in their story, Snap analyzes who sees those branded snaps and tracks whether users — or their followers — visit the store, according to New York Business Journal.  

NewMark Merrill’s decade-long quest to open a shopping center outside of San Bernardino became reality with the opening of its Walmart Supercenter anchor.   The 239,552-sq.-ft. Rialto Marketplace is due to be fully operational in June, when the doors will open for tenants including Starbuck’s, Sprint, Chipotle, Les Schwab Tires, Carl’s Jr., and Ono Hawaiian BBQ.  

Some of the biggest names in retailing and foodservice used experiences to encourage a high percentage buyers to visit at least once last year.   Specifically, Walmart, McDonald’s and Target had more than five out of six U.S. consumers shopping with them in 2016, according to “The Checkout Penetration Index,” from The NPD Group’s Checkout Tracking.