Retail in a Winter Wonderland

The coldest season is full of opportunities for c-stores, if one knows where to look.

The weather outside may look frightful, but there’s no reason c-store retailing can’t be delightful in winter. The rainy, snowy months may look foreboding with expectations of diminished retail activity, but the season does offer its own unique opportunities for a store owner to maintain healthy sales and create market distinction while doing it.

Convenience store success is all about knowing what customers in your local market want, and wintertime is no exception. Just as an ABC Store in Hawaii has a profusion of sunglasses and tanning lotions, a successful c-store on the way to the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains is going to be stocked up on portable generators and tire chains, with automotive service options you might not find at other c-stores.

There are other examples. A site creating a comfortable, attractive, warm space to serve fresh homemade breakfasts can start the day off right for utility workers and other hard-working winter maintenance specialists. And this store in the Texas Hill Country provides deer corn during the winter hunting season.

Insightful operators also incorporate charitable promotions or events into the Season, creating a win-win, feel good narrative to complement their commercial interests. In short, there’s a lot of ways that c-stores capitalize on the cold months. Here are a few more:

• NACS Online provides a summary of some of the products vendors have unveiled for this winter season.
• This story on Weigel’s Family Christmas is a good example of the giving spirit that permeates the industry during this time of year.
• CSP News reviews some of the specialty holiday drinks that have arrived on c-store shelves.
• Winsight Grocery Business reports how all 162 Natural Grocers stores offer “Holly Deals” every year and what that means.
• NCR offers some tips on how convenience stores can boost their winter profits.

In its 40 years of existence, SSCS has seen its fair share of convenience store strategies for maintaining profitability through all four seasons, and we’ve been matching software solutions to help along the way, “off season” and on. If you’d like to hear more about our technology or have a particular performance challenge that you think technology might help address, please call us at (800) 972-7727.