Beverages

Mention the general merchandise category to most convenience retailers or distributors, and eyes glaze over. Heads shake in despair. Mumbles about mass merchants killing the category on price can be heard, along with laments that the highly competitive and profitable beverage, tobacco and snack categories demand attention first. General merchandise, it seems, has become the ugly duckling of the industry.

In 1996, a single H. E. Butt (H-E-B) grocery store began selling fuel in its parking lot in Midland, Texas, a mid-size market with a poulation of 300,000 that was well-served by traditional petroleum marketers such as Kent Oil Inc.