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TOP VIEWED STORIES

1

Circle K & Mountain Dew Partner on Exclusive Flavor

Mtn Dew Purple Thunder combines blackberry and plum flavors and is available only at Circle K locations. Its bottle design features a biker gang of Dew characters, including a plum and blackberry enjoying “the sweetest ride of their life.”

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PHOTO GALLERY: Buc-ee’s Opens Its Inaugural Store in Kentucky

On April 19, the retailer threw open the doors of its travel center in Richmond, Ky. Located at the northeast corner of I-75 and Duncannon Lane, the first Buc-ee’s in Kentucky occupies more than 53,000 square feet and offers 120 fueling positions

3

Casey’s Unveils Its First Store Without Fuel

The retailer opened its first location without any gas pumps in Des Moines, Iowa, on April 22. The 3,380-square-foot store, located at 3121 Forest Ave. near the campus of Drake University, operates from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week.

4

Investor Urges 7-Eleven Parent Company to Focus on C-store Chain

ValueAct Capital gave its approval to Seven & i Holdings’ recent slate of candidates for its board of directors while continuing to push for bold changes, such as exiting all non-core businesses.

5

FDA Officially Proposes Ban on Menthol Cigarettes

On April 28, the Food and Drug Administration proposed two product standards: one to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes, and the other to prohibit all characterizing flavors (other than tobacco) in cigars.

EXPERT VIEWPOINT

Freud, Pot & Lemon-Kale Smoothies

What does Sigmund Freud have to do with convenience retailing? A lot, actually, writes Joseph Bona, founding partner and president of Bona Design Lab, and James Owns, vice president and shareholder at HFA. As you may recall from Psychology 101, Freud’s model included the id (our wild, instinctual desires), the superego (the moralizing part of us that aims to squelch all of that), and the ego (the realistic mediator between the two).

Designers, architects and engineers routinely see the interplay of different elements of the human psyche in their work on behalf of convenience store retailers. At a single c-store, a shopper in id mode could pick up alcohol, tobacco or vaping products, while a person listening to the superego could buy the likes of a plant-based burger, a quinoa bowl or a lemon-kale smoothie. Less than a year since Performance Food Group (PFG), parent company of EbyBrown Co. LLC, closed on its acquisition of Core-Mark Holding Co. Inc., the two convenience channel distributors have already made significant progress in how they offer the best of both their worlds. The companies’ areas of expertise complement one another, according to Curt O’Rourke, vice president of merchandising at Core-Mark. “Core-Mark was very fresh focused. Eby was very foodservice focused,” he said.

The first stage of integration involved interacting with vendor partners as one entity. The companies are now in the second-stage process of bringing various teams and departments together and integrating various systems and operations to build a single team. Stage three will be integrating the best of both Eby-Brown and Core-Mark into each other’s networks, which will also begin this year.

Eby-Brown Focuses on Boosting Foodservice Post-Merger

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MOST VIEWED NEW PRODUCT

Beyond Meat Jerky

Beyond Meat Inc. and PepsiCo Inc. introduce Beyond Meat Jerky, the first product from the companies’ joint venture, Planet Partnership LLC. The plant-based jerky is marinated and slow roasted to offer the savory experience of traditional beef jerky. It comes in three varieties: Original, Hot & Spicy, and Teriyaki. Beyond Meat Jerky contains 10 grams of protein per serving, no cholesterol, and is made with simple, plant-based ingredients like peas and mung beans, all without GMOs, soy or gluten. Available in three different pack sizes, Beyond Meat Jerky is Beyond Meat’s first shelf-stable product.

Beyond Meat Inc. El Segundo, Calif. beyondmeat.com