3 Big Numbers is a weekly column that looks at a few key details from around the c-store industry.
The NACS Show was pretty much the only thing the convenience store industry was talking about this week. The massive event included dozens of educational panels, hundreds of c-store executives and thousands of products to either sell in or improve operations of retail locations.
While we couldn’t share numbers from every corner of the show in one short column, our three big numbers for this week encompass the many fascinating sides of NACS. They include the high cost of accepting credit cards, the positive impact of improved training and a surprisingly short wait for chicken.
$19.7 billion
The amount in swipe fees paid by c-stores in 2023.
Consumers expect retailers to accept credit cards.
But the money retailers pay to process those transactions, called swipe fees, is taking a healthy chunk of change out of c-store companies’ pockets. Last year, that chunk was almost $20 billion, Chris Rapanick, managing director of NACS Research, said during a presentation at the show. That’s more than 2% of the $859.8 billion in total sales NACS estimated c-stores took in that year — and more than twice the amount retailers paid in 2009.
60%
The reduction in turnover at TXB after it implemented a new training program.
Convenience retailer Texas Born (TXB) saw that a fair number of workers were leaving early into their tenure — many in the first three months — thanks to its cumbersome and unengaging training program. It had two choices: It could give up and conclude that no one wants to work there — or it could rethink its approach to training.
Thankfully, it chose the latter.
Since implementing its new five-day onboarding regimen, TXB saw a 60% reduction in turnover, said Abby Curlin, corporate recruiter and training developer for TXB, during an education session on Wednesday.
1 minute, 21 seconds
The wait time for Krispy Krunchy Chicken.
To many, the length of lines on the show floor may not be the most pressing and illustrative figure we could share with you. But we can all agree that a sub-two-minute wait time for hot, fresh food is nice — especially compared to the massive lines that some people have waited in for a golden fried sample.
It’s unclear if the blissfully short wait time on a Tuesday afternoon was an anomaly or an experience shared by many show goers. However, we suspect that visiting Krispy Krunchy Chicken at the same time as retired NFL star Rob Gronkowski’s appearance at the Monster Energy booth probably helped.
With multiple c-store chicken purveyors at the show saying that the next big thing in poultry trends will be boneless offerings, we’re preparing for long lines for chicken nuggets at next year’s show.
