The Art of Buying & Selling a Convenience Store

The Art of Buying and Selling a Convenience Store: This book was written by gas station and convenience store industry expert Terry Monroe, a professional.
Table of contents

We sell all the usual stuff. We get on with them.

Yes, I qualify by owning 5 or more convenience stores, so please send my complimentary edition of:

I was on the phone to them this morning, actually, asking them something about milk. He thinks this is why independent shops have the upper hand over supermarkets moving into the convenience store market. There are, of course, challenges. I worry about the future, especially the way the Euro is going against the pound.

Despite the dangers he has faced and the economic climate, he still enjoys serving the local community and knows most of his customers by name. It's the suppliers that Mr Shah finds to be the most frustrating part of running his shop. Our suppliers also put big mark-ups on products. Mr Shah fends off the larger retailers by focusing on pricing and product range. All the individual bakeries by us have closed in the last 10 years.

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Some Italian specialty and meat only are still open but they are barely hanging. He doesn't give enough space to the family operated and century long stores. Like Walt's or Butera's or some of the Meijer's. They are regional but most of them are mighty. Just like his favorite of Heiman's. Or how the benefits levels have caused some of those to demise quickly.

The profit margin in excellent food for lower and middle class buyers is minute. And perishable foods have to have a quick, quick turnover.

When it goes to online- grocery shopping? I'm old enough to assume that I may get by without ever having to do so. Have you ever read Camilleri? Montalbano could be my food son. So we won't even talk about the fish chapters here. Food is not tangent to my tribe. Not even among the very pickiest of us. Good book, skewed and not titled properly but he has some great points about placements and what different people believe and choose for "proper" food.

Forgot a last tidbit that has mesmerized me for more than a decade and he mentions it here too. Sometimes actually they are even the bigger sized blueberries sent to Chicago? There are some of those aspects to fresh foods that I never will understand. A kind of artificial built in "top down decision" regulated pricing that has nothing to logically do with supply and demand equation to pricing levels?

And he doesn't visit sales taxes on food and any other added taxes on foodstuffs enough at all in this book. While the major stores within 2 or 3 miles of them in Cook have empty checkers. Beyond the liquor, cigarette and other added taxes that Cook has instituted, there is a peoples' revolt going on. Every third commercial running on TV is people who are spitting mad or condescending arrogant.

Families are going a couple of extra miles to get 30 bottles of flavored water that doesn't even hold any sugar but has had its price doubled by the new tax. It's a circus at times- the grocery store. Read your labels and YOU decide what you will eat. Do not let others make that decision for you. May 20, Karen rated it it was amazing Shelves: Michael Ruhlman has written numerous cookbooks in conjunction with chefs and other non-fiction books related to cooking. Here, he gets into the nitty gritty of the grocery business. Who would have thought this topic could be so fascinating. And eye-opening as well.

Ruhlman has done exhaustive research on this transforming industry. He gathers info from many sources; by observing practices, interviewing a wide scope of people - visionaries, owners, buyers, vendors, farmers, nutritionists, Michael Ruhlman has written numerous cookbooks in conjunction with chefs and other non-fiction books related to cooking. He gathers info from many sources; by observing practices, interviewing a wide scope of people - visionaries, owners, buyers, vendors, farmers, nutritionists, the list goes on.

His passion for food is obvious and I found his style of writing to be very readable. The book is chock full of good information and advice. Rahman also touches on nutrition in general and trends grocers have to keep up with in order to satisfy customers. Have you considered what the replacement is for the fats that are taken out?

Food companies are inserting questionable ingredients into products to increase their bottom line and too few people are paying attention. Luckily, the pendulum appears to be swinging in the right direction - more consumers are making nutritious food choices and the industry is following the trend with healthier organic choices. Via this insightful book, I earned a new respect for my own neighborhood grocery store and the efforts that go into its smooth operation.

Apr 16, Robyn rated it really liked it Shelves: Quite enjoyable, interesting, with a balanced tone but a tendency toward repetition and confused structure. It's not easy to write with a conversational feel in a factual book with source citations, but this manages it. I have at times in the past been harsh in my reviews of Ruhlman's books, because he can't seem to keep himself off the page in places he doesn't need to be.

Here, finally, he's found a theme and style where his presence in the narrative makes sense and isn't a distraction. I di Quite enjoyable, interesting, with a balanced tone but a tendency toward repetition and confused structure.

Sell My Convenience Store

I did find myself irritated by some of the points repeated ad nauseam. Constantly it was mentioned that consumers now have many places to buy the same items, when that used not to be the case. Uncountable sentences re-explaining the diversification of product lines. Again and again it was pointed out that Costco, Sam's Club, and Wal-Mart came on the scene offering better prices, and that Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, with their specialty goods, went national.

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Every single time these things were written as if they'd never been mentioned before. Add in the contradictions--he says Whole Foods sells a version of Froot Loops, which he lists the ingredients for to point out that it's sugar and stripped carbs, and 3 pages later says you can't buy Cap'n Crunch at Whole Foods because the chain offers food that supports health--and I find myself going round in confused circles.

There was a lot of meandering, all of it on interesting subjects I mean, I gave this four stars, so I clearly found it fascinating , but much of it seemingly barely related to what preceded it, and a lot of very suspect ideas were given much page space without being justified by the central idea of the book. An entire chapter is devoted to the opinions of a very negative analyst, presenting them as proven fact, despite their not matching life as I've known it in the four states I've lived in. In the end, I enjoyed the book and was glad to read it, but there was no cohesive thesis behind it, and I found it exceptionally difficult to explain to others just what this book I was reading was about.

Appreciation to the publisher for the ARC, which in no way affected the content of my review or the rating. Oct 17, Lindsay Nixon rated it it was ok Shelves: The title is grossly inaccurate. This book is mostly the author petaling or defending his food choices. Most of which have zero scientific backing That aside, there's little talk about buying or The title is grossly inaccurate. That aside, there's little talk about buying or selling groceries or the logistics.

He does give the history of a Midwest chain grocery store he likes but that's It's more like he strung random things he read together and packaged it with policy propaganda and his personal beliefs which are meh Jan 10, Stephen rated it liked it Shelves: There's a few errands to take care of first -- an homage to dad, a quick review of the history of grocery stores -- but then, straight to business.

Convenience Store M&A Specialist - Terry MonroeTerry Monroe | Convenience Store Expert

Aisle by aisle, from dried pasta to fresh fish, the way Americans approach food is changing, and Michael Ruhlman's Grocery shows us how, using -- literally -- the neighborhood grocery store, the one just down the block from his childhood home. Ruhlman has a particular passion for food, one inherited from his father -- a man who gen Let's go shopping! Ruhlman has a particular passion for food, one inherited from his father -- a man who genuinely looked forward to his weekly run to the grocery, one who kept journals of the meals he'd entertained company with -- and has turned that into a series of books, including one that took him into chef school.

Here he's spending his time with the twin brothers who run a series of stores that grew out from their father's, one that has continued to stay on top of modern eating trends. During Ruhlman's childhood, the grocery store was a place where you bought groceries. Wal-Mart changed that, though, when they invaded the grocery market, and other stores like Target followed in their wake. A lot of what a grocery stocks, the stuff in the center aisles, are commodity goods that are the same regardless of where you buy them: The quality doesn't change from store to store, and it's hard for a local grocery to compete with prices against the likes of Wal-Mart, let alone Amazon.

Their future will lie in offering high-value goods or culinary experiences that can't be thrown on a truck. Although Americans cook increasingly less -- Michael Pollan speculates gloomily that the next generation may view food prep as weird and alien to their life as milking a cow or beheading a chicken we're still obsessed with food.

Part of this is not a healthy obsession, although "health" is the object: Neither Ruhlman nor anyone he interviews are impressed with the USDA's track record in declaring foods as "healthy" or unhealthy, having previously damned eggs and butter to the devil's bin.

The Art of the Upsell

What most people miss is that no food is "healthy", Ruhlman writes. Food can be nutritious, but it's only part of a healthy lifestyle. Even if the granola bars people are so increasingly fond of were unequivocally good for them -- and they aren't, really, given the amount of sugars packed in as preservative -- people need varied diets and physical activity to be "healthy". Still, what the market demands is what it gets: Happily, the market in general is shifting to favor organics and local produce, so the absence of spring fruit in winter is no longer a deal breaker for people who visit the store.

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Grocery stores are having to go beyond food, too: This is not not unique to the Heinen brothers, as other chains like Trader Joes have experimented with coffee houses and the like; from the surviving neighborhood grocers to WalMart, prepared food is an increasing part of the grocery store's stock in trade.

What is unique to the Heinens is that they have a doctor on staff, one who vets the quality of their produce and health departments, and who gives community seminars about food and wellness. Grocery has a lot of topics thrown in the buggy -- the history of grocery stores, critiques of our modern diet, insight into the marketing and purchase decisions of grocers -- though some of it may be repetitive if you've been reading an author like Michael Pollan.

The store he chose has a unique character, and I enjoyed learning about the brothers' business and their attempt to contribute to a fresh food culture in their part of Ohio. Also, I have to be a fan of anyone who takes a beautiful but abandoned building and turns it into a community center, at a big risk to themselves. My only real complaint with the book was the occasional repeating of a really specious claim made by people whom Ruhlman was interviewing.

For instance, that it's possible to taste mountain wind in lamb meat. Jan 11, Tom Franklin rated it really liked it. The Buying and Selling of Food in America is part love poem to the Cleveland area-based Heinen's grocery store chain and part memorial to his recently deceased father. Set amongst the characters of the Heinen's chain, Ruhlman's father's death, his own imminent divorce, his love for food, and his fascination with a grocery store chain that does things the way he would do them, his book weaves in and out of the Heinen's aisles and people who provide the produce and meats that en Ruhlman's Grocery: Set amongst the characters of the Heinen's chain, Ruhlman's father's death, his own imminent divorce, his love for food, and his fascination with a grocery store chain that does things the way he would do them, his book weaves in and out of the Heinen's aisles and people who provide the produce and meats that encompass the periphery of any good grocery store.

The center aisles being given over to pre-packaged foods The title of Ruhlman's book is somewhat misleading. Early on he says he's not going to be writing a history of the grocery store. Others have already done so Instead, he focuses on the chain he grew up going to and learned to love early on in life. Less than halfway through his book I considered this to be the best advertising campaign Heinen's has ever had; by the end I was convinced that Ruhlman was going to hold the launch party for this book in the Heinen's in the former Cleveland Trust Building -- a renovation at the center of the final, "Where We Are Headed" section of the book.

Ruhlman's book occasionally wanders off in areas that best make sense to Ruhlman. His impending divorce and his recent father's death weigh heavily on his writing at times; he quotes from Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma so often that it became distracting. Much of the book falls into the category of The Cult of Personality Heinen's own "Doctor Todd" and employees ranging from the co-owner brothers, Tom and Jeff, and numerous Heinen's employees who came from other areas of the food industry to work for a grocer they believed in, to many of the vegetable and meat providers.

I have no doubt that Heinen's will be proud of Ruhlman's book, as his father would undoubtedly have been. I found it an engaging, if somewhat distracting read that lacked any hint of negatives to what Heinen's does. Ruhlman may have convinced me that I should visit Heinen's if I'm ever in the Cleveland area, but I'm not about to believe the 'characters' in his book walk on water the way they're depicted. Jul 08, Rachel Blakeman rated it it was ok. This is really a 2. Some chapters were OK but this was largely a self-serving book. The more accurate title would have been "Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food at Heinen's.

As a result the book feels very incomplete in telli This is really a 2. As a result the book feels very incomplete in telling the story of America's grocery buying. As other reviewers have said, there is a lot of rehashing other material Omnivore's Dilemma for example so frankly I didn't learn much. However if you want to learn about America's eating habits, find another book.

There are many good ones, just not this one. This started out strong and had chapters that were really interesting, but it seemed like the author lost steam about halfway through. Then, it became less of what made grocery into what it is and more of an advertisement for Heinen's and a eulogy for his father. The over the top physical descriptions of women and the instance of overt anti-Native American racism were super, super distracting, too. Feb 01, Chris rated it really liked it Shelves: I saw the author promoting his book on one of the morning news shows and was energized by his passion for food and grocery stores.

It turns out this passion was nurtured by his dad who died in or so. These mid size grocers are the ones who drive innovation and change. Big chains like Kroger respond more s I saw the author promoting his book on one of the morning news shows and was energized by his passion for food and grocery stores.

Ruhlman goes department by department within the store. We learn a lot about health and bad food as well as meeting a host of eccentric characters loving what they do each and every day. Jun 22, Riley rated it it was ok. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Grocery shopping can be nostalgic. Remember the times shopping with your family. Consumers tend to throw reason out the window and pick product based on what the easiest to evaluate, not what's most important. They do it almost intuitively, and they regularly increase the size of the purchase. Phibbs concedes that the airport customer is a little different than the average convenience store customer.

Employee incentives for upsells can help drive business, provided there are ways to measure those opportunities. The retailer then decides how to distribute the bonus.


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Next generation POS terminals are combining with data analytics that take in sales data to move the needle on tasks such as upselling, which used to be only tasked to sales staff. Knowing from sales data that a snack item is often bought between 9 am and noon and that a higher-profit ounce drink goes well with it would be enough to make those two a pair.

Coded into the screen facing the customer can be an instantly targeted message: Analytics are also helpful in what not to offer.


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If a particular ounce soft drink does well between 11 am and 2 pm, these systems will know enough not to offer a special on that product during those hours. Morris said many corporations in the quick-serve industry are already using this kind of big data information, combining sales data with contextual information such as time, weather and traffic patterns. These types of strategies have been around for several years but are still relatively new to most in the c-store industry. At each purchase a relevant upsell is suggested on a screen, which is an efficient way to manage upsells in a busy c-store environment.

Another area that could be mined for electronic upselling are loyalty programs. With technology such as geo-fencing, information about the way particular customers shop can be accessed.