Tim Young:
First of all, I really appreciate that opportunity to come speak to you guys. When you look at center store, I’ve always envisioned a convenience store as being a concession stand for adults. So how do you come up with ways to add some excitement? Because a lot of times when people come in, you’re catching them at all points during the day. Somebody might be having a great day. Somebody may not have a great day at all. So it’s a matter of trying to put programs together that when people come in, they’re going to walk out really satisfied. And we talked a little bit about the experience because a lot of times that’s what it is. It’s about that experience. When you walk in, you might find an item that takes you back to your childhood. When you remember going into a store or going to the concession stand with two quarters and trying to make it last. Clearly the majors are the majors, but how do you get a little bit deeper when you’re looking at variety? It’s always been fun to look at new items, but also how do you put programs and promotions together that are just a little bit different that add excitement

Jeff Lenard:
When you talk about a concession stand, sometimes you’re at a sporting event. Let’s just pretend that the sporting event that we’re at, with gas prices where they are, the team is down, you’re a little discouraged. So is there an opportunity that our industry has to uplift people at that concession stand when gas prices are high, things are difficult and people feel pressure. How can center store and some of these items be positioned differently?

Tim Young:
That’s a great question. What we’ve found through the years, a lot of the items within candy and snacks have been somewhat recession-proof. Most of them are relatively inexpensive. Right now today, we’re just trying to make sure we have it. That’s been a big challenge quite honestly. You might have a great idea, but if you can’t get it, it’s been a little challenging. So we’ve worked hard on the merchandising aspect to create points of interruption, have a promotional endcap that really stops folks when they first walk in. We’ve invested a lot of time and energy in the queuing system so when you’re going to that point of purchase, you’re getting a chance to see some items that maybe you passed over. For me, a lot of it comes down to merchandising, and how do you do that differently. I’ve had the chance over the years to work for large organizations as well as some small family companies, but I’ve never been offered an exclusive M&M or an exclusive Snickers Bar or a Reese’s Cup. So how do you do things a little different because on a four-corner stoplight, I want folks to come visit me. So how do I do that? A lot of times that merchandising part will be very important.

Chris Blasinsky:
Thinking back to our Convenience Voices research candy is the number one impulse item in a convenience store. And walking down that candy aisle, like you said, it is the concession stand for adults. There’s so much excitement, but there’s a science behind how that is set up. It’s very intentional. It might look like random everything to the customer, but as a category manager, that’s a science for you.

Tim Young:
It could be an episode of ‘CSI’ because when you really get into it, there’s so much detail. When you’re putting your layouts together, as you’re looking at that endcap that’s by that Mountain Dew door, when that door opens and closes, how does that person turn? And when they turn, what do you position there? A lot of times when you’re getting into that, and you’re going through your plans on this is how the promotion should work, this item should go here when you go into stores and you don’t see it, then you get into the weeds a little bit with the folks in the store. You walk the manager back to the door and you say, ‘Okay, when we open this door and we close it, which way do you turn?’

Tim Young:
They turn, they see it and they’re like, I get it, I understand it now. It can be challenging because in today’s world, labor is tough and finding people is a challenge. So you’re always out there trying to figure out how do you make things simple? I take a look at my career and I feel that a lot of the success that I’ve had in marketing has been because I’ve spent a lot of time in operations, so you understand it. And then getting out and visiting stores so you can see and talk to people. I mean, that’s what the business is. When I finished my conversation on stage, I talked a lot about people because this is a people business. And the more time you invest in other people and making them understand certain things, then they become successful. And when they’re successful, you’re successful. And then we all win.

Chris Blasinsky:
I’m going to shift to salty for a minute because I think salty performed pretty well in the last year coming out of the pandemic. A lot of that had to do with people being out and about again. And there’s so much excitement in salty snacks. The kids these days, they like things that set their mouth on fire and turn their fingers different colors. I’ve noticed over the years that there’s been some shifts like nuts and seeds and things that are a little bit more healthy. They kind of teetered in and out of the top 10 here and there, but they’ve really started to stay, they’ve earned their place within the salty snacks category.

Tim Young:
I totally agree. When you look back at 2020 when a lot of things shut down, categories that took the hit are seeds and nuts for sure. Because the ball games, nobody was playing, nobody was getting out, a lot of your breakfast energy bars started to take a hit because that customer was working from home and they weren’t coming in until maybe early afternoon. When we looked at our data for the resets going into 2021, you basically take a lot of those categories and you push it aside and say, well, we’re not going to make a whole lot of changes here because last year wasn’t a true representation of what that category looks like. But you’re right. Fire, Hot Cheetos, those things are absolutely crazy. I think they’ve got some innovation coming out later this year, it’s like a Carolina Reaper. What are you doing to me?

Chris Blasinsky:
Do not touch your eyes. Don’t touch your face.

Tim Young:
But it does extremely well. So the hot side of the business continues to grow. There’s folks who really enjoy that. That’s a little tough for me to enjoy, but once again, my name has never been on a door so I have a nice little focus group that really likes hot items and I can have them sample.

Jeff Lenard:
I like talking about the science of the concession stand. Let’s just call it that. We’ve had a couple episodes recently talking about road trips and what we’ve heard is that it’s going to be a strong summer with sales. When people are going on road trips, they are stopping in bathrooms. They come out of the bathroom and the first thing they see is motor oil and gloves. It doesn’t exactly say, are you hungry. How does a consumer shop? One fifth of the consumers, if they use the bathroom, that’s really the front door. So any kind of science behind how you set up things, whether it’s positioning, price or pictures as people consider different areas of the store?

Tim Young:
That’s, that’s a great question, Jeff. And you hit on a great point there. When you’re in a smaller organization, you tend to lean a lot more on some of the information that the larger vendors can provide, like heat maps. Heat maps are incredibly important. If you’re watching traffic patterns of customers and they’re coming in and they’re going straight to the bathroom, when they come out of the bathroom, that first section should be something that grabs their attention, not the motor oil. We built our layouts to take a look at traffic patterns, because that’s a destination category.

Tim Young:
If you need motor oil, you’re going to go find it. So there is a lot that goes into that because when you do your layouts and set them up, it’s all about adjacencies as well. So if you’ve got a wall of package beverages, and those are things that people are tend to pick up and take for family gatherings or events, that’s where you should merchandise a lot of your take-home chips, because those go well together. And then when you’re doing promotions, keep it simple because all the data tells you that it’s maybe two minutes that they’re in the store. If you want to build that basket, do your layouts with that in mind. 43% of stops are premeditated. So people are planning before they ever get to the parking lot. And I think Leroy said 38% was en route. So basically 81% of the customers are making the decision before they ever get to your lot. Digital has become increasingly important, loyalty programs, incredibly important. And then how do you communicate that? We’ve still done a great job leveraging when you do get on the lot because people shop with their eyes. So it’s a matter of what’s your message? Is it price or is it is a product?

Chris Blasinsky:
Jeff was talking about road trips and how summer drive is looking. We recorded a podcast with AAA and summer drive is going to be, as they said, sizzlin’ this year.

Jeff Lenard:
Sizzlin’ without the G. It’s so hot, there’s no G.

Tim Young:
I like it!

Jeff Lenard:
Now both of you guys mentioned Convenience Voices and the idea of people purchase or having the intention of purchasing something before they even get to the store. And one way to entice people is to go on social media and to literally have no filter or have all kinds of filters. Big hats, mustache accents, you name it.

Tim Young:
It’s been pretty incredible. I started sending out birthday videos to folks and then started to circulate some of those through the office. And they came to me one day and they said would you mind putting together some content for us because we were really trying to get our social media platforms off the ground. I leveraged LinkedIn pretty heavy because I’ve got a really good following there, but their response was great.

Tim Young:
For me, it’s a creative outlet because I know that there are a lot of folks who truly enjoy the humor and it’s never been about me or trying to build my brand. It’s just about having some fun with what you do. If you’re passionate about what you do, it’ll come through. And like I said, you never know what somebody’s dealing with on a given day. I’m a firm believer that we all have a purpose and you gotta figure out what your purpose is. And I’m not saying that creating crazy LinkedIn videos is my purpose, but it’s been fun and the response has been great. So I enjoy doing it.

Chris Blasinsky:
You know, Tim, there’s a lot of boring retail out there, but this channel is anything but.

Tim Young:
You’re right. When you look at a lot of the social media content, people all over the place having fun and that’s what it is.

Jeff Lenard:
Any advice for somebody who may not be as outgoing as you for how they might do something?

Tim Young:
When I look at some of the success we’ve had, it’s more like that homegrown, generic, going into a store and getting a picture of the image of the product. So it doesn’t always have to be the crazy person out there in front. I’ve got a face for radio, so doing videos, maybe not the greatest thing for me, but if you put something together and you have a nice flow, nice content, a speaking voice that goes with it, that’s just as well as some crazy dude in a mustache. It’s just something that grabs their attention. I’ve had an executive with Coke reach out to me and tell me I pay a lot of money for content. I’m like, that is awesome. So just have fun with it, you know?

Chris Blasinsky:
The beauty of social media is that if you don’t like something, you can take it down, redo it and repost it.

Jeff Lenard:
Well, I think we’re at the time in the program where we’re going to have a trivia question. I’ll start off with something that feels deceivingly easy and then I’ll have a follow up. So here we go with the first part: Convenience stores operate one third of all the ATMs in the country. What does ATM stand for?

Tim Young:
Automated teller machine.

Jeff Lenard:
You are correct.

Jeff Lenard:
Sometimes it’s called automatic teller machine, but it is never, ever, ever called ATM machine because that’s machine twice. Now the second part of this for sports fan Tim, one of the early promoters of ATMs was Docutel, a company out of Dallas, which was run by Jack Meredith. What did Jack Meredith do to close sales?

Tim Young:
Is it Don Meredith’s dad?

Jeff Lenard:
It’s his brother. And he would fly clients to Dallas headquarters. His brother, the Cowboys quarterback, would show up with his teammates and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, and he would sign that contract and everybody would leave with a signed contract. So that’s how you run a business

Chris Blasinsky:
Thank you Tim, for joining us as always. It’s a pleasure and we appreciate you being on Convenience Matters and we hope that we can have you on again very soon. And for anyone who’s listening, please subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast player and check us at conveniencematters.com. Until next time.

Outro:
Convenience Matters is brought to you by NACS and produced in partnership with Human Factor. For more information, visit convenience.org.

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