"FUEL MARKETING SERVICES: IT’S ALL IN THE P’S"
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONVENIENCE STORES ANNUAL CONVENTION
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, OCTOBER 17, 1994

You’d better decide who you are, who you’re going to be, and get on with it to succeed.

We have 50 branded Texaco stations and 5 unbranded stations. We have big canopies and big stores. Our relationship with major oils is good, but we’ve lost some brand identity. We’re struggling to get it back.

On the side of our trucks we have painted "Cracker Barrel quality products for over 26 years." It’s a rolling billboard.

We have a Cracker Barrel fleet card developed five years ago. We also take the Fuelman fleet card and that’s additional volume.

In the South, we feel like you have to know us and we have to know you. Knowledge is the key to success. When you quit teaching, you quit learning.

When you’re branded, you can’t shop price the way you can as an independent. But I think in the future, majors will offer us some form of futures buying.

One of the best things we ever did is get into the trucking business. We rent through Ryder and own our own trailers. You ain’t seen paperwork until you’ve seen the DOT and if you’re getting into the business, you’d better get an expert in to show you the forms and show you what your files should look like.

Decals are cheap and you’ve got a rolling billboard. You can do a lot with those trucks.

When I buy a truck, all four drivers are in the meeting. They tell me what they want. They’ll treat that truck with respect if they get what they want. It’s their home.

My meetings with truckers are very simple. I ask them what they need. All I ask of them is they keep their truck clean. And I don’t require them to speed.

We’re 20 miles from the refinery, so we have no bulk plant.

We got in the tank testing business. It was simple math for us. We have 150 tanks. For about a total investment of $50,000, we have a two-year payback. And we set the tank testing schedule. We don’t have somebody pulling in at 5:00 p.m. at our highest volume station and shutting it down because they need to do their testing. We got into the fuel dispenser repair business. We got four full-time guys who repair and they’ll be there long before anyone else will be there. They also take care of air conditioning, and refrigerations and cash registers. They treat our stores like their best customers.

We feature Texaco gasoline in everything we do. They’ve got some co-op money but when the money runs out, the Texaco logo does not fall off. They’re part of our marketing strategy.

People always want charitable donations. We gave 500 gallons of gasoline to operate vans for a local charity. And we got a huge amount of publicity. When you throw money out there, throw it out wisely.

The best promotion we have ever done is a promotion of Louisiana products. We did a little bit of advertising and did end caps. It absolutely snowballed. They build GMC trucks in Louisiana and we did a truck give-away. They could win anytime someone walks through the door. Do not make Billy Bob be an accountant to win a prize. He’s not going to keep receipts. Give him the prize and put it in his little hand. He’ll remember that.

Every year we budget gallons and we budget profit. Each store has its own pricing policy. Managers can set their prices on a daily basis within parameters. We need to keep volume going so we don’t destroy inside sales. Learn over history and time and develop policies that work for you. When margins go to hell, my palms still get sweaty. But it’s just a fact of this business.

You’ve got to have market knowledge and you’ve got to have the guts to do it.

We’re in the sales business. We forget that all too often.