Weigel's and TXB managers tell NACS Show tobacco loyalty programs leave margin on the table

Kathy Williams, senior category manager at TXB, put it plainly at the NACS Show: "Tobacco and loyalty already work together. The question is who is getting paid for it."

Tobacco loyalty

The session, called "Puff, Purchase, Repeat: Winning With Tobacco Loyalty," paired Williams with Jessica Starnes, director of loyalty and tobacco category manager at Weigel's, and Jayme Gough, NACS director of research and development. Tobacco is still one of the biggest margin categories behind the counter. The argument was that operators running loyalty and tobacco as separate programs give up rebate and manufacturer dollars they could be capturing, and that combining the two programs recovers some of that money.

The first day of the show also carried other sessions, including ones on common scams and a fuel market outlook. For a jobber or operator, the loyalty-tobacco tie is the one with a near-term dollar figure attached.

America's No. 1

A new ranking put one chain ahead of Buc-ee's and Wawa as the country's top convenience store, according to WKMG. The source material naming the winner didn't come through, so take the headline for what it is: Buc-ee's and Wawa both draw national attention for their scale and food programs, and getting ranked above them is a real marketing line for whoever landed it. Worth confirming which chain before anyone quotes it.

T C Jester's second store

T C Jester Food Mart is opening a second Houston store, at 1602 W 18th St in The Heights, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation permit. The site is about 0.46 acres, 20,038 square feet, with a 1,917-square-foot freestanding building, near the 18th Street retail corridor and down the road from the Heights Marketplace. The first location built its name on snacks and a drive-thru. Independents use that mix of food and convenient access to compete with the national chains, and opening a second location suggests the approach is working for them in Houston.

What to watch

Whether the tobacco-loyalty pitch from Weigel's and TXB moves past the session room into actual program changes, since the rebate money only shows up if operators restructure how the two programs talk to each other. Watch for the name of the chain that topped Buc-ee's and Wawa, and for what metric the ranking used, because volume, store count, and customer survey each tell a different story. And watch whether more independents like T C Jester keep adding drive-thru foodservice units while the majors fight over the forecourt.