Expert Viewpoints

In a report released last month, analysts at Merrill Lynch announced that the North American convenience store industry, dominated by mom-and-pop operators, is ripe for consolidation, a trend that would favor the large publicly traded store operators.

One of the key findings of this year's Convenience Store News Technology Study is that, when asked what they hope to accomplish with their technology investments in 2005, 70 percent of retailer respondents reported reducing theft and shrink. By far, that was the No. 1 priority, receiving twice as many responses as the second-highest answer (better management of store labor expense).