Archive for Items Categorized 'Avanti Magazine', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.
The new Franchisee Merchandising Advisory Council met for the first time in Dallas on Friday June 16, 2017. This committee was formed based on a request made at the last CEO Roundtable to provide franchisees with more opportunities for input and ideas on merchandising topics. Franchisees in attendance included: Nick Bhullar, Vice Chairman, NCASEF […]
The recent movie “The Founder” is based on the story of how Ray Kroc grew the McDonald’s brand through franchising. Several scenes in the movie peaked my interest as being eminently relatable to 7-Eleven and even prompted me to look for more McDonald’s comparisons to our system. The first scene revolves around the design […]
SEI has stated and demonstrated it is on a growth path in Canada and the United States by continuing to make store acquisitions that add to overall store totals. The company is presently near its goal of 10,000 locations in North America with its recent purchase of 1,108 Sunoco c-stores (with gas), which brings […]
During my tenure as the General Counsel of the National Coalition, I have often wondered how best to characterize our franchisor. Is 7-Eleven, Inc. a convenience store retailer and franchisor? A gasoline provider? A logistics and supply company? An accounting and bookkeeping company? Increasingly, the answer seems to be that SEI is well on […]
Convenience store sales are the sum of the efforts of the people involved, and I often compare it to a three-legged stool composed of 7-Eleven, Inc., vendor manufacturers or service people, and franchisees. The objective of the stool is to “sell more stuff,” but like the stool, we need each leg in the relationship […]
Roughly two years ago, National Coalition Board members and officers held a maintenance contract meeting with SEI wherein Joe DePinto decided to put the planned maintenance fee increase on hold mainly because franchisees were not receiving good service from FM Facility Maintenance, which is now Vixxo. At the time, SEI agreed to work with […]
It’s been nine years since the launch of the famous Apple App Store. Needless to say, a lot has changed since we first heard Apple’s pivotal ad campaign motto “There’s an app for that.” What started off as novelty items—simple time waster games, and clever ways to use your iPhone camera’s flash as a […]
We’ve been hearing for at least a year about SEI’s new Expand The Assortment program (ETA). Many of us assumed it was going to entail adding a few SKUs to each section in our stores, but as it continues to roll out, we see that there’s much more to ETA than we initially realized. […]
One of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits involves a scene in the Change Store, a retail outlet that makes change in currency for customers. Here is how I remember the skit: A newly hired clerk in training watches as an experienced employee changes a $10 bill into two $5 bills for one customer […]
Local FOAs can do a lot to help franchisees who are struggling. Competition comes in many forms, and franchisees sometimes need help improving sales at their stores. It becomes very frustrating when we invest tons of money to acquire a 7-Eleven franchise, or a 7-Eleven BCP store, and within a month, or six months, […]
