Convenience Stores

For the U.S. as a whole, temperatures will trend similar to last year and below normal, but there will be a split in trends across the nation with warmer temperatures in the West and cooler temperatures in the more densely populated East. The month will begin with warm weather across much of the nation and that will continue into the Columbus Day weekend in the East before turning cooler. The Northwest region will trend wetter than last year, but it still remains drier than normal, while the Southwest will be wetter than last year and normal.

By Matthew K. Harding, president, Levine Management

Moving into the final months of 2014, the outlook for retail in the Northeast remains quite positive. We are seeing demand from national, local and franchise companies across a broad range of categories.
 

Over the last decade, U.S. airport in-terminal dining and retail programs have begun a transformation. As passengers’ time spent within terminals has increased, the demand for enhanced airport in-terminal experiences has equally increased. In turn, the state and local governments that own and operate all commercial service U.S. airports have shifted their retail and dining programs from generic offerings with minimal services to programs with a wide variety of specialty retail and dining brands, innovative technology and upscale amenities to respond to the new consumer expectations.

Chicago – Retail is the top industry targeted for data breaches. According to the 2014 Global Security Report from cybersecurity provider Trustwave, retail made up 35% of attacks Trustwave investigated in 2013.

Food and beverage ranked second at 18% and hospitality ranked third at 11%. In addition, POS breaches accounted for 33% of Trustwave’s 2013 investigations, while e-commerce made up 54% of assets targeted and data centers comprised 10% of assets targeted. The median number of days from initial intrusion to detection was 87 days.

Louisville – Convenience chain Thorntons Inc. has implemented the Paytronix Loyalty Platform to support its new Refreshing Rewards customer loyalty program across 174 locations. Leveraging the Paytronix loyalty engine enabled the c-store chain to quickly test a variety of elements in a secure, market-focused pilot program and then rapidly roll out the program to all its stores.

Golden Pantry protects customer data with secure network

Champaign, Ill. – Quick-service chain Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches reportedly had customer credit card information stolen from its payments systems at 216 of its 2,000 stores by hackers. According to Bloomberg, log-in credentials from a payment systems vendor were used by hackers to infiltrate POS systems at its stores between June 5 and Sept. 5.

Jimmy John’s first learned of the breach on July 30 and has been using forensics experts to investigate it. The retailer says the breach has been contained.

Miller Lite is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with Danny Trejo and Richard Rawlings by making a $10,000 contribution to the ¡Adelante! U.S. Education Leadership Fund. The two celebrities will go head to head during a friendly beer sales competition slated to take place before the start of the Sept. 28 Cowboys game at AT&T Stadium in Dallas.