Archive for Items Categorized 'Avanti Magazine', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Product Mix And Center Of The Store Sales Plan

  I recently received an e-mail from one of my field consultants regarding the center of the store sales plan for the months of January and February. The plan included recommendations on what products to add in certain parts of the store. Most of the suggested items were for the snacks, candy, HABA, and energy […]

How Important Is Communication?

  As 7-Eleven grows towards 10,000 stores—the company’s goal by 2015—communications between franchisees, 7-Eleven, Inc., and vendors becomes increasingly critical and at the same time increasingly complicated, not just because of the size of the organization, but because of the time it takes to generate informative, high quality communications. Today we have Zones with 500 […]

Influencing Legislation That Could Impact Our Businesses

  With the economy still on the mend, it appears many state and local governments dealing with budget issues are looking for quick fixes, and these fixes usually end up affecting small businesses like ours one way or another. Whether it’s a tax on sugary drinks, a ban on plastic bags, or new menu labeling […]

The Dangers Of Selling Counterfeit Products

  With respect to the sale of counterfeit products in your store, this article will begin with the same warning it will end with: DON’T DO IT! Recently, the owner of one brand of a sexual enhancement product accused a 7-Eleven franchisee in Southern California of selling not only that owner’s counterfeit product, but other […]

GEA: The Power Of The ClipBoard

  The idea of store inspections to improve overall cleanliness is not new. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Southland Corporation (the predecessor to SEI) would send employees to every 7-Eleven store unannounced to perform store cleanliness inspections. Back then the company realized the best way to get franchisees to follow new policy […]

Why Is This USE Not Local?

  In the old days, 7-Eleven would hold University of 7-Eleven (USE) events in local market areas and would repeat these in more than a dozen or two areas around the country. It was exceptionally gratifying to go to a USE, meet with the market manager, shake hands with the Division vice president, and float […]

Asset Protection: A New Approach

  With SEI pursuing an aggressive expansion plan, the number of 7-Eleven stores available for franchising is increasing. Many of these new stores inevitably will be sold to existing franchisees who have proven they can run stores profitably. The others will be sold to newcomers, which is great news, because the more franchisees we have […]

State Of The Coalition: 2012

  The National Coalition has begun its 39th year as an association, and we have just completed our 37th annual convention and trade show. What began with six franchisees in 1973 has continued to grow into a membership of almost 4,000 stores and 40 Franchise Owners’ Associations around the country in the 30 states in […]

Taking Innovation To The Next Level

  We all know that the convenience store industry is constantly evolving. Changes and innovations are introduced almost daily in the form of new products, higher-tech equipment, more effective store layouts, etc. C-stores that do not adapt to these changes quickly fall to the wayside and are soon forgotten. 7-Eleven has always been at the […]

Recommended Vendors And Cost Of Goods: The FSC

  In the late 90s, as many franchisees will recall, a class action was commenced by several franchisees against the Southland Corporation (the predecessor company of 7-Eleven, Inc.) which alleged many wrongdoings by the franchisor, chief among them being that Southland breached the store agreement by failing to give franchisees credit for the value of […]