Chipping Away at Operating Expenses
As they say, it takes money to make money. But when it comes to operating a convenience store, does it have to take so much money?
During my 14-plus years at Convenience Store News, I have covered numerous earnings calls for convenience retailers and operating expenses always stand out as a pain point.
Case in point: For the third quarter of its 2025 fiscal year, Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey's General Stores Inc. reported same-store operating expenses — excluding credit card fees — were up 3.2%. And just this week, Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. reported that for the third quarter and first three quarters of fiscal 2025, the retailer's operating expenses increased by 8.1% and 11%, respectively, compared with the corresponding periods of fiscal 2024.
It's no wonder that both of these industry players have made building more efficiency into their operations a strategic focus over the next few years. At the same time, both retailers are laser-focused on enhancing the customer experience.
How can a c-store retailer achieve that and keep its operating expenses down? At first glance, it appears that two would not be possible. However, thanks to innovation in the technology space, nothing is truly impossible.
At both the store level and headquarters level, as leading tech executives recently pointed out, technology is helping convenience retailers save on labor, monitor equipment, speed up training and onboarding of new employees, and improve customer satisfaction. "More and more, I'm hearing about solutions that provide retailers with the ability to take a proactive approach to their operations," Ed Collupy, owner of Collupy System Solutions LLC, recently told CSNews.
With solutions such as IoT, artificial intelligence and automation, retailers have the ability to chip away at operating expenses and invest those dollars where it arguably matters most: the customer experience.
