Our guest this week is Allison Cornish, VP of Store Modernization for Pilot Flying J, recorded live in the MarketDial podcast studio at the NACS Annual Show. Allison is deeply experience convenience store industry veteran who was also recently recognized as the Top Woman in Convenience.
Our guest this week is Allison Cornish, VP of Store Modernization for Pilot Flying J, recorded live in the MarketDial podcast studio at the NACS Annual Show. Allison is deeply experience convenience store industry veteran who was also recently recognized as the Top Woman in Convenience.
In a wide-ranging conversation we unpack the evolution of the convenience store business model at the Berkshire Hathaway owned retailer and discuss which merchandise, process, and technology adaptations are most important to drive customer loyalty and store associate engagement We also delve into Pilot Flying J's innovation process, including the role of consumer research and prototyping to unlock new sources of guest and store operating value.
But first we dip into the week in retail news, including our take on the relative importance of Black Friday/Cyber Monday. We ponder the avalanche of discounts that are about to be unleashed upon us, particularly by Kohl's which appears to be in the worst inventory position. Then we dip into earnings reports where we learn that less bad is apparently the new good, as Best Buy and Nordstrom dropped a lump of coal into our stockings, but saw their share prices rise. Dick's Sporting Goods continues to shine, however, posting yet another quarter of sales growth. We close with quick takes on declines in Amazon's customer satisfaction and whether a bankruptcy filing from Bed, Bath & Beyond is inevitable.
The Remarkable Retail Podcast Tops LoyaltyGuru's Top Podcast List.
Catch Steve and Michael at NRF's Big Show
BONUS EPISODE: Stuart Taylor, VP, Business Insights and Analytics, Kum & Go
About Allison
Allison Cornish serves as Vice President of Store Modernization at Pilot Company. Cornish is a graduate of Maryville College with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management. She joined Pilot Company as her first job out of college and throughout her career has held leadership positions in multiple capacities including Regional Manager, Chief of Staff and VP of Operations. Cornish is dedicated to mentoring young up-and-coming leaders and female colleagues across the business and its more than 650 company-operated travel centers.
About Us
Steve Dennis is an advisor, keynote speaker and author on strategic growth and business innovation. You can learn more about Steve on his website. The expanded and revised edition of his bestselling book Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption is now available at Amazon or just about anywhere else books are sold. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior contributor and on Twitter and LinkedIn. You can also check out his speaker "sizzle" reel here.
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global E-Commerce Tech Talks , The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois and now in its second season, Conversations with CommerceNext! You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
Be sure and check out Michael's latest venture for fun and influencer riches - Last Request Barbecue, his YouTube BBQ cooking channel!
Michael LeBlanc 00:06
Welcome to the Remarkable Retail podcast, Season 5, Episode 21. Presented by MarketDial. I'm Michael LeBlanc.
Steve Dennis 00:12
And I'm Steve Dennis.
Michael LeBlanc 00:13
So, a few days after the big day, Steve, a Happy Thanksgiving. And do you have any particular traditions in your family, food on the table or shopping like anything that always has to be on the table for, for Thanksgiving?
Steve Dennis 00:27
Not so much. Usually, it's just a debate about how much I enjoy cranberry sauce and my kids loathe it. That's, that's the big, that's the big, (crossover talk),
Michael LeBlanc 00:34
Cra-, cranberry sauce could be pretty polarizing, actually you know. I was on a Twitter feed about, about stuffing, I love stuffing. But there's people who just, (crossover talk),
Steve Dennis 00:41
Who doesn't love stuffing?
Michael LeBlanc 00:43
I know, I know, I couldn't, I couldn't get over the whole discussion but anyway. We should take this opportunity to thank all of our many fantastic guests who have graced us with their insights and the many, many listeners and subscribers here in North America and around the world. And you know recently even I, you sent me along, these folks at Loyal Guru who named us the number one retail podcast. So, thanks to everybody just for supporting us and, and the work we do. And thanks to you for being my partner in this fun venture. Likewise, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start to tear up a little bit here. But yes, so I'm very, we've been very fortunate to grow the audience quite a bit. This year we have a new sponsor,
Michael LeBlanc 01:21
Yeah.
Steve Dennis 01:22
We've made it onto a bunch of these,
Michael LeBlanc 01:24
Yeah.
Steve Dennis 01:25
These lists, a five-star review, a five-star rating on Apple, which by the way, we wouldn't mind if our listeners would head on over to Apple. We'll, we'll pause here and wait while you do that. A little bit of Thanks in advance for that one. Yes,
Steve Dennis 01:36
This is an advance for that. Yeah. But it's, it's been great. And we got a lot more exciting things to wrap up this season and to jump into next year. So, stay tuned for that.
Michael LeBlanc 01:45
Yeah, speaking of next year, as we said, we've been renewed for another year. Thanks again, Steven and the folks at MarketDial. So, we’ll be back, starting our sixth season in and around the NRF Big Show. And in this episode, our very special guest recorded live in person at the NACS, National Association of Convenience Stores conference in Las Vegas in the MarketDial podcasting studio, is Allison Cornish, Vice- President Store Modernization for Pilot Flying J.
Steve Dennis 02:10
Yeah, I really enjoyed this conversation. First of all, I felt like we were drinking from a firehose (inaudible) convenience store stuff, the Last couple of months, but it's all, all super interesting. And Pilot J., if folks don't know, we'll learn more about it in the interview, of course, but Pilot J, is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, and really a massive, a massive player in the space and growing and doing lots of interesting things. So, I very much enjoyed that conversation with Allison.
Michael LeBlanc 02:36
Yeah, and she's very accomplished. She was actually named, coincidentally, at the show one of the Top Women in Convenience for 2022. So, she is very accomplished in her field and gives us a good broad understanding of the industry as well. And a reminder to everybody to be sure to check out our most recent bonus episode released late last week with Stuart Taylor, VP, Business Insights and Analytics from Kum & Go, released last Friday. All right, well, let's jump in. We're recording this on Friday. So, it’s the beginning of the Black Friday, Cyber weekend, Cyber Monday weekend for us. But any thoughts on, on the event itself? And perspectives? I mean, we're releasing this the day after so all the excitement has happened. But any thoughts on whether you shop on Black Friday, Cyber Monday? Do you, do you hold back and shop? And do you think some of the excitement has come out? And what's your general thinking on the weekend?
Steve Dennis 03:27
This is a dirty little, little secret I think I've shared with you before. Despite many of our friends and various folks out there, in the malls, checking things out, I am very proud to not go into stores on Friday. It's just I don't believe that my anecdotal observations add anything to the conversation as much as I enjoy seeing various reporters standing up in malls talking about whether they see people with shopping bags, or whatever, some, some si-, type of scientific explanation. So, I abstain and generally spend time with family. I may do some online shopping, for sure. But you know, my overall impressions over the years, really, is that Black Friday and Cyber Monday have a lot of hype associated with them. They're certainly important shopping days. But I think studies have shown that performance over this Black Friday, Cyber Monday period, are not necessarily correlated very well, with how retailers do. I think what's interesting about this year in particular, and we'll, I think touch on this a little bit more in a minute, is that you know, business has gotten quite a bit tougher. We've heard a lot of retailers talk about how sales decelerated going into November and we also know that a lot of retailers are saddled with inventory, gluts.
Steve Dennis 04:00
So, my, my general sense and I think there's some data starting to back this up is that the discounts are steeper than they have been. So, that puts extra pressure on how, on how retailers do over the next few days. But you know, the real action is the, is the back part of December. I mean, that's where
Michael LeBlanc 04:12
Yeah,
Steve Dennis 04:13
Where, you know, the margin thing really starts to sort itself out. And that's where a lot of the big shopping days will be. So, some, I'm kind of, I wouldn't say I'm sitting this one out, but
Michael LeBlanc 04:20
Yeah,
Steve Dennis 04:21
I don't get, if I guess, wrapped around the axle about, (crossover talk).
Michael LeBlanc 04:29
Sure,
Steve Dennis 04:30
How critically important it is. Well, on this side of the border in Canada, Black Friday, Cyber Monday is actually fairly new, if you can, it's only about 10-12 years that we've been doing it here in Canada. And so it's still, it’s still got some shine on it. Of course, it's very different because it's not a holiday, right. Friday's not a holiday. You got Thanksgiving on the wrong day.
Michael LeBlanc 05:37
Yeah. That's right. That's right. You know, we're at a little colder temperature. So, the harvest happened earlier. So, our Thanksgiving is long, it is long past now. I will share with you some interesting information with the Retail Council of Canada and Leger. We put out a report and we were doing it for five years. And we asked customers what their intention was. And I'll just share with you that when we asked what percentage of their overall holiday spend budget they would spend on the following big days, Black Friday was 22%, Cyber Monday 16%, and Boxing Day, which is a big deal. And neither of these are exactly days either. But Boxing Day, which starts the day after Christmas a day, the second day after Christmas was 12%. Let's talk about earnings. You know, it's been a relatively slow week for business news. But BestBuy came out with some news and Nordstrom and Dick's so what, what say you about the results?
Steve Dennis 06:26
Well, you know, I'm starting to feel we talked about this last week that less bad is the new good. Because BestBuy had their stock go up quite a bit this week, despite reporting, comps down negative 10.4%. Their earnings being down I think about 40% or something like that year-over-year. And they maintain their guidance, which I guess is good, because it says they don't see things getting worse. But their guidance for the next quarter is for sales to be down 10%. So, not exactly a stellar earnings report. But again, because of expectations being what they were, the stock bounced back. And kind of a similar story on Nordstrom, they beat expectations a bit as well. Their sales, though, are down. I think their flagship is the Nordstrom brand, you know, the full line stores were down 2%, Nordstrom Rack down 3%, the off-price concept of digital sales were down 16% year-over-year. So, you know, seeing this with a bunch of retailers where they're (inaudible) the digital side of things to a kind of unusually strong numbers,
Michael LeBlanc 07:36
Wouldn't you expect the Rack to be a little counter to that? Because if people are, you know, maybe looking for a bit more discounted there it is at the Rack, right?
Steve Dennis 07:44
Generally, I would agree with you. The thing with the Rack, which has been a challenge for them, I think probably going on a couple years now is the Rack has really been underperforming. And there's various theories on this that I mean, and I generally agree with this, that the concept, the Rack assortment has grown a little bit too similar to the full-line store. And I think some of their execution has waned. So, I agree with you. I mean, from a segment standpoint,
Michael LeBlanc 08:04
Sure, sure.
Steve Dennis 08:04
I think the value-oriented players performed better, but I think it's mainly on the merchandising strategy. And some of the execution, which they alluded to in their earnings call. So, they got some work to do there. I guess the star of the week in a lot of regards was Dick's Sporting Goods, which has really been on a tear for two or three years now. That had a solid comp number; their earnings were down a little bit year-over-year. I mean, we continue to see some, some pricing in margin pressure, but they actually raise their guidance, which has been pretty unusual for the folks that reported in this, in this cycle. So, they're, they're doing pretty, pretty well. But you know, still, I guess the against a lot of backdrop, as I mentioned earlier, just things seem to be slowing down in terms of consumer spending, or whether that is consumers may be stepping off the gas a little bit to save or to use the money that they have for the holidays. I guess that's,
Michael LeBlanc 09:07
Yeah, yeah.
Steve Dennis 09:09
We'll need, need to have a fuller picture. But the one the real outlier is Kohl's, a 41% difference between their growth in inventory and their sales performance,
Michael LeBlanc 09:24
(Inaudible), as Scooby Doo would say.
Steve Dennis 09:26
(Inaudible), yeah and you know, they, I mean, I guess it remains to be seen what this quarter would look like will or will look like but certainly the trends that they've been on for several quarters are quite poor. So, I just don't know how, how low can you go to move through that much inventory? Now, I assume they've been canceling orders and stuff like that, you know, so there's a bunch of ways you can try to get those things back, (crossover talk),
Michael LeBlanc 09:44
Yeah, I guess.
Steve Dennis 09:47
Back in line. Clearly Target and Walmart were able to get out of a lot of inventory because they didn't have huge sales increases that wasn't what helped them get back on track. So, that’s, that's, that's going to be a really, really interesting story when we get through, through this quarter and, and definitely will contribute to, I think, an extensive amount of discounting and apparel,
Michael LeBlanc 10:07
Yeah.
Steve Dennis 10:08
Pretty much across the board.
Michael LeBlanc 10:11
Well, in your job interview for Kohl's leadership, I'm sure you're going to be asked to come up with a solution for that. So, (crossover talk),
Steve Dennis 10:15
I have lots of ideas, (crossover talk),
Michael LeBlanc 10:17
We will ask all our listeners, (crossover talk),
Steve Dennis 10:20
I'll find some and put it together.
Michael LeBlanc 10:22
Let's call on the listeners to give Steve ideas for his job interview for the Kohl's presidency. Let's talk about Amazon's customer satisfaction. And then let's talk about Bed Bath & Beyond, which has got some troubling tea leaves.
Steve Dennis 10:34
Yeah, just really quickly, there was a report that was put out about how Amazon's customer satisfaction has been on the decline. And one of the things that a number of commentators got into was how much Amazon has been increasing advertising on the site. And so, part of the theory here was that the shopping experience, you know, that you're there to buy stuff has been deteriorated by Amazon, emphasizing advertising and changing, you know, kind of the search function. I'm sure anybody who shops on Amazon is probably familiar with this, and perhaps has noticed this, as well. What I think is interesting, you know, we've had a couple of episodes this season, about retail media networks. And this was one of the things we've talked about as, as advertisers or as retailers start to emphasize the profits that can be made from media, how does that balance out against the core business of selling things? And this was just a suggestion that perhaps Amazon has tilted things too much in favor of advertising. But as we know, they've, they've been generating huge profits,
Michael LeBlanc 11:38
Sure.
Steve Dennis 11:39
Advertising, and that is a growing, growing piece. So, as Amazon goes through the strategic review, and is looking for ways to kind of get that overall retail profitability mix up, I'm presuming they're looking for ways to get that, that mix in a little bit better shape. But it'll be interesting to see whether they make any changes in the customer experience.
Michael LeBlanc 12:01
Yeah, well, I guess one of their, also key indicators is, is the renewal rates on Prime which are stunningly high. I mean, they're Costco like high, right. So, if that starts to slip, that's a really important index, I'm sure they've watched, which indicates, you know, little, a little trouble with the product and maybe dissatisfaction with the overall experience. So, you know they're a super smart group of folks, I am sure they are keeping an eye on it. But they are weighing the pro's and con’s right, right? Okay, (inaudible) you know, maybe site experience rating slipped a point, but we made five points on advertising. So, you know, that's not a terrible trade off, I suppose. To some point, eventually, it leads to,
Steve Dennis 12:34
Yeah, you know, you got to turn the knobs I guess and get that in the right place.
Michael LeBlanc 12:39
Let's wrap up with there's not much to say about this. But there's, there's kind of rumors or thoughts around the Bed Bath & Beyond actually being able to get enough inventory countered in the whole conversation we've been having, because people are a little bit afraid, you know, they're not factoring or they're a little bit afraid of them, not paying them I guess or are being giving them product and, and being at risk of not getting paid.
Steve Dennis 13:01
Yeah, there's a story that came out this week about how they're out of stock situation has gotten quite a bit worse. With the speculation being I'm not even going to guess, speculation. I guess there were some quotes from vendors that were not shipping because they're,
Michael LeBlanc 13:13
Yeah.
Steve Dennis 13:14
Worried about getting, getting whether they get paid or not. And unfortunately, it's like this downward spiral that can occur when you, when you get yourself into, into trouble, you know, fears of bankruptcy or whatever. It might be that it takes a situation that is already obviously quite challenging there at Bed Bath & Beyond; it actually makes it worse because you don't have stuff to sell. So, with any luck, they will be able to navigate their way through this. I still am of the belief that we're likely to see a bankruptcy filing there, (crossover talk), Q1 year,
Michael LeBlanc 13:47
Yeah Q1, yeah, I wouldn't be a surprise.
Steve Dennis 13:48
Yeah, that would be, that would be my guess. So, that's definitely a situation to watch. I was also going to just briefly mentioned this is not a retailer that's as high profile but Tuesday morning, one of the discounters or off-price retailers that kind of pioneered that category way back when they've been going through a lot of struggles, struggles as well so that they're on the I guess on the watch list for, for retailers that may be lucky to limp into next year, unfortunately.
Michael LeBlanc 14:17
Well, I guess there's a page in your PowerPoint for the Kohl's gig. We will sell our stuff to Bed Bath & Beyond. There you go.
Steve Dennis 14:25
Circle of merchandise life.
Michael LeBlanc 14:28
All right now just before we get to our great interview with Allison Cornish from Flying J. Let's hear from our presenting sponsor MarketDial.
Michael LeBlanc 14:36
MarketDial is an easy-to-use testing platform that emboldens great decisions, leading to reliable, scalable results. With MarketDial you can be confident in the outcome of your in-store pilot initiatives before rolling them out across your fleet. In a challenging retail climate of supply chain disruption, labor shortages and dynamic customer behavior. The need for reliable insights has never been greater. validate your remarkable ideas with MarketDial in-store testing solution. The proof is in the testing. Learn more at marketdial.com. That's marketdial.com.
Steve Dennis 15:08
Well, Allison Cornish welcome to the Remarkable Retail podcast live from NACS. How are you today?
Allison Cornish 15:14
I'm doing great. I'm so excited to be here today.
Steve Dennis 15:17
Well, we're excited to have you here. So, we always love to just start out hearing a little bit about our guests' personal and professional journey and the work they currently do. And then we'll, we'll dig into our other questions. Awesome. Well,
Allison Cornish 15:27
Awesome. Well, I'm Allison Cornish. I work with the Pilot Company, as the Vice-President of Store Modernization, and I've had the pleasure of working with Pilot for 23 years.
Michael LeBlanc 15:32
Wow.
Allison Cornish 15:33
Yeah. I've done a variety of roles, (crossover talk),
Michael LeBlanc 15:36
You started when you were like, 12?
Allison Cornish 15:38
That's absolutely right. Yeah, you're absolutely right. (Crossover talk),
Michael LeBlanc 15:42
You had a great career.
Allison Cornish 15:44
I've done a variety of things for the company; I've run the stores. But then I've also worked with our leadership team, supporting our stores across North America. So, it's been a great journey and a great company to work for.
Michael LeBlanc 15:35
Yeah, Folks, I think throughout the US, certainly will know about Pilot, it's kind of hard to drive around and not run into one of your locations. But for people that may not have a sense of what you're about and how big you are. And that kind of stuff. Just give us a little bit of a color commentary around the business and scale and scope and that sort of stuff.
Allison Cornish 15:50
Yeah, I'd be Yeah, I'd be happy to. So, we've been in business for more than 64 years. We are a travel center chain; you'll find us in 44 states and six provinces in Canada. We're primarily as I said, travel centers. So, you'll see commercial fueling lanes on the back, you'll see gas islands on the front, we typically have food offerings in our stores. It's a variety of food offerings, we have a variety of different QSR brand partners that we do business with. And we offer merchandise for every occasion. So, it's a great place to stop if you're on an interstate if you're driving. We want to be the place that you will see on the interstate to stop, dressed up.
Steve Dennis 16:47
I found it sort of hard to miss.
Allison Cornish 16:50
Yeah,
Steve Dennis 16:51
Which is probably what you're going for.
Allison Cornish 16:53
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 16:54
Right on.
Allison Cornish 16:56
We're everywhere.
Michael LeBlanc 16:58
Right on, right on. Now, let's get back to you for a little bit. I understand you; you've won an industry award or you're winning an industry award? What, what is it and tell me about it?
Allison Cornish 17:04
I did. So, I was very humbled to receive the Convenience Store News, Top Woman in Convenience, (crossover talk) last night.
Michael LeBlanc 17:05
Fantastic.
Allison Cornish 17:06
I am very, very excited and obviously just a great group of women. But it was, it was a pleasure to be recognized. So,
Steve Dennis 17:16
It's amazing.
Michael LeBlanc 17:19
Fantastic, (crossover talk).
Steve Dennis 17:21
Congratulations.
Allison Cornish 17:22
Thank you so much.
Michael LeBlanc 17:24
23 years as an industry leader. It's fantastic.
Allison Cornish 17:27
Yeah, It's great.
Michael LeBlanc 17:29
You know, you just mentioned about the kind of the mix, I'm curious about the mix as I was and I've been, of course to your, to your locations, because they're in Canada. So, I'm Canadian, I'm from Toronto. It's a real mix. It's interesting, because you bring in your own, you know, your own product. And you mix that in with different brands, I see some big-name brands. Tell me about that mix and how that comes together? I know you're not the merchant but you're the operator. So, you actually bring these things together and sit at the executive table? How do you, how do you guys look at that? Yeah, well, we
Allison Cornish 17:51
Yeah, well, we actually are a franchise operator.
Michael LeBlanc 17:53
Okay,
Allison Cornish 17:54
We actually operate about 14 brands. And we obviously have a mix of QSR brands as well as we have our own proprietary food.
Michael LeBlanc 18:00
Right.
Allison Cornish 18:01
And every store is different. And we treat every store differently. And we think about who's stopping at that store. And that obviously helps dictate what we, what we put in our location.
Michael LeBlanc 18:12
Let's talk about who is stopping at the locations? Is it, are professional truck drivers like to talk about who you're, who you guys think of your customer, and how you and how you go about thinking about that?
Allison Cornish 18:21
Yeah, it's really anybody who is traveling on the road and needs a place to stop. So obviously, we have a mix of guests, we obviously cater to our professional drivers, but we also cater to the auto drivers as well. And then there's those, those RV drivers, you know, the ones that are going cross country to, to vacation or whatnot. So, we cater to families, business travelers, anybody who's out on the road, we stopped, we want to be able to, we want to win their business.
Michael LeBlanc 18:46
It's a fa-, it's a fascinating business, because you're also I think, your Berkshire Hathaway company as well, right?
Allison Cornish 18:55
We are, we are, (crossover talk).
Michael LeBlanc 18:57
Like that the sign of, (inaudible) seal of approval there, (crossover talk), Berkshire Hathaway, (crossover talk),
Allison Cornish 18:59
We want to be part of their portfolio,
Michael LeBlanc 19:01
And you move a lot of oil or sorry, I should say a lot of fuel yourselves, right? You've got tanker trucks, you're like,
Allison Cornish 19:03
We do.
Michael LeBlanc 19:05
What would we call that, vertically integrated, fully vertically integrated, right? From,
Allison Cornish 19:08
We've got a great fleet that helps supply our locations across the country.
Michael LeBlanc 19:14
You know, speaking of the drivers, it hasn't been an easy time for the professional driver, you know, the past couple of years and it kind of continues? What do you guys (inaudible)? What do you think about that segment and making their lives a little bit easier? I mean, through the COVID era, post-COVID era. It's tough to be a professional driver, right? There's a supply chain that means you might be sitting outside a dock for a couple of days, like how do you conceptualize that and then work that back into what the experience at your locations is going to look like?
Allison Cornish 19:38
That's a great question. We obviously value the professional driver, you know, everything that we eat, where we have in our homes are brought to us by professional drivers So, I'd say there's a couple of things that we think about for the professional drivers and I'll put it sort of in three, three buckets.
Allison Cornish 19:46
One, is just our overall operations. We have provided a consistent experience, you know, that our operators provide which is really clean, friendly and full. So, we want clean facilities, we want friendly team members to welcome those professional drivers, and we want to have our stores full of products that they need.
Allison Cornish 19:56
I would say the second thing that we're doing to help professional drivers is really on the technology front. So, we really want to be an easy place to do business and really connected, you'll be able to have a connected experience for those professional drivers. So, technology would be the second thing.
Allison Cornish 20:06
I’d say, the third thing is really this whole idea of store modernization. And, you know, we're, we're investing a lot of money in our facilities to update them, make them more comfortable, etc. with our New Horizons project. And obviously, that's in the spirit of, for all, anybody who's on the road, but (crossover talk). But also, for those professional drivers for a comfortable place for them to stop and refresh themselves.
Michael LeBlanc 20:17
Sure. And so, let's talk about this New Horizons initiative, that that's the thing that you're sort of focused the most on right? And,
Allison Cornish 20:23
Yeah,
Steve Dennis 20:24
Maybe, just kind of, I guess, number one, give us a sense of, you know, how that became a thing, you know, what was driving, that, that initiative, and then, you know, give us some of the details in terms of what it's trying to accomplish and how you're going about prioritizing initiatives and that sort of stuff.
Allison Cornish 21:51
Yeah, I'd be happy to. It's actually one of the most exciting things I think we've done in our company. So let me explain what it is first. So, over the next about three to four years, we will be investing over a billion dollars, overhauling our locations. And we felt the time is right, right now we know that the needs of our guests are changing. And we also want to prepare our locations for the future, we know that new things are coming down the pike, and we want to be able to, to help ourselves with that. So, we are overhauling our facil-, overhauling our facilities in a variety of different ways. We're, we are looking at sort of the offerings, and specifically the food offerings that we're doing, we're looking at t-, technology enhancements. Now, obviously, overall, facility enhancement is a big part of it. And then last, but not least, you know, trying to make a better place for our team members to work.
Steve Dennis 21:56
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 22:03
I've been hearing, I've been hearing at the show here, you know, my head's kind of spinning 360 degrees. But certainly, the usual kind of fried foods are kind of popular. But when you talk about changing what the kind of food is, is it the healthier choice? Is it a broader assortment? Like I'm just I'm curious, as you know, even on my whiteboard, is it what the menu looks like? How do we figure that out? And looked at, you know what that process looks like?
Allison Cornish 22:24
Sure. So, we know that drivers of all sorts, such as gas, professional, RVs, etc. that food is one of the biggest decisions when considering where to stop at a store. So, what we want to do is be able to provide a breadth of offering for every occasion. So, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, late night snack, whatever it is. And we really have this food forward initiative. And that's where when you walk into our stores, it's, you can, you can't miss the food. So, we will still have our partnership with our QSR brands, who are also introducing our proprietary food. And it's a variety of offerings. So, it's, it's cold, it's cold food, and it's freshly made salads and, and sandwiches. But we also are offering hot food as well homestyle meals, you know, some food that you typically could get at your home, we're offering it on the road, the meatloaf, the pot roast, the chicken, etc. And it's all made at our stores. So again, it's food for, for every occasion and food for all types of folks.
Steve Dennis 23:27
And what was the role? And one of the things I think we were particularly interested in because we both have worked in innovation in retail over a long period of time, but it's a, it's a constant topic on the podcast is and not to get too in the weeds in the process. But you know, there's obviously lots of things you could change. There's lots of money you could spend, you know, what, what's the input, you know, is it customer research? Is it prototyping? Is it testing like what, what are the things that you use to figure out what you're going to do? And then actually decide to pull the trigger on, on these investments?
Allison Cornish 24:04
Yeah, so what's really different about New Horizons, because innovation and store re-models has always been something that Pilot Flying J. has done.
Steve Dennis 24:12
Sure.
Allison Cornish 24:13
So, what's really different about this initiative is that we took the time to really do some research, we talked to the, to the folks that, that live it and breathe it every day. So, we talk to our guests. And we also talked to our team members, you know, a lot of the best ideas come from those that are on the front lines. And we learned everything from what they like what they don't like they actually in some of the feedback actually dictated which stores we focused on first,
Michael LeBlanc 24:36
Give us an example of something that the field said and you're an experienced operator yourself. So, listen, this is, this has got to change and took you by surprise maybe. Are you on the other hand, you're like, Yeah, we could, that should change. Give me, (crossover talk), give me some examples?
Allison Cornish 24:50
It's everything about sort of being super intentional about store design, and how you can make a facility a lot easier to operate and work in. So, thinking about adjacencies, thinking about how equipment is lined up in the kitchen, thinking about the actual equipment that you use. So, again to remove steps, make things more efficient, you know, everything. We looked at the laundry equipment, as I said, the kitchen equipment, you know, we've added self-checkouts as part of this initiative. Again, that helps not only the guest expedite a transaction, but also helps the team member too.
Michael LeBlanc 25:04
Sure.
Allison Cornish 25:05
And we still, you know, our team members are still there. They, we have, we still have team members (crossover talk), point of sales, and they also helped with the self-checkouts. So that's one thing that we heard from our team members. From our guests, we heard a lot about food, as I've mentioned before, it's one of our big focus areas. But it's also just sort of this whole touchless entry too. So, you can imagine after our post-COVID wor-, world, how can you make things a little bit more frictionless? And so those are just a couple examples, but very, being very, super intentional, and listening to that feedback?
Steve Dennis 25:47
And how do you sort through and maybe you can even if you're willing to share a little bit about what you're looking for at this event in particular, which is a ton of different vendors, lots of new technologies? How do you go about that technology mapping? I feel often, you know, there's so much technology that gets talked about across a wide spectrum. And some of it is the latest, bright, shiny object, right. And some of it is, you know, version one. And if you had committed to version one and rolled it out, across your fleet, you would have spent a lot of money and time and then suddenly you find yourself, not where you need to be with the competition. So, h-, how do you vet technology? And what kinds of things are on that horizon for you, in terms of innovation?
Allison Cornish 26:31
Yeah, well, well, one of the things that when we think about technology, we think about it in two ways, we think it and what's right for our guests, and also what is what's important to our team members. And I'll say let me start with it, with the guest. First of all, we really want to have this connected experience. So, our, so using our, using technology, our technology, specifically our app, it's creating this very consistent experience, a connected experience before you even pull onto our parking lot. And that's not just for our professional drivers, but it's for our auto guests too. So, when you use our app, you can start fueling mo-, you know, mobile fueling, and you can come inside and use our kiosks, everything is very seamless, and very connected. Offers are through there, obviously the points etc. You know, for our team members, you know, we want to do something again to make their job a little bit easier. How do we, how do we make it to where it's, it takes, you know, less time to do something so they can spend more time?
Michael LeBlanc 27:02
Yeah.
Allison Cornish 27:03
With our, with our guests?
Michael LeBlanc 27:10
Sure.
Allison Cornish 27:11
So, there's definitely a lot of things that we want to do. But it's really, you know, we spend a lot of time thinking through what's most important today.
Steve Dennis 27:17
Yeah.
Allison Cornish 27:18
And there's obviously a lot of discussion about that. And also, it's really what can be digested by both our team members and guests. You know, change management with technology is obviously a big deal. So, being very thoughtful about hey, here's what you need now.
Michael LeBlanc 27:45
Yeah, yeah, (crossover talk),
Steve Dennis 27:50
And I hate to ask this question, but it seems like you should 'Pilot' a lot of stuff is that true. You're changing your company to a prototype. I was workshopping that all night.
Allison Cornish 27:54
You were thinking about that all night?
Michael LeBlanc 27:57
We didn't quite get the timing down, right.
Steve Dennis 28:02
Yeah, well, (inaudible) dress rehearsal, (inaudible) kills. The actual question is do you, do you 'Pilot' or prototype, a lot of initiatives?
Allison Cornish 28:13
We, I think we definitely have things that are, that are unique. So, yes.
Michael LeBlanc 28:18
I mean, what I'm really curious about is, and Steve touched on it a little bit. And I know you've got a complete team behind you, from technologists, customer experience in-store, you know, on the one hand, you don't want to be second or third adopter of a new technology. On the other hand, you want to be, you don't want to be adopting CSET technology that's going to become, you know, going in the wrong direction. So, I guess it's that tradeoff between the two, risk and reward right? As you know, I'm always interested in these kinds of whiteboard discussions about relevance and, and investment, investment and return on those things. Is that how you guys just conceptually think about projects? As you sit back you've told us eloquently about how. Listen, it's gotta be member focused, customer focus, you know, layered on our experience, is that a sense of how the team comes together and kind of blesses the next iteration of what would you call it the connected consumer, right?
Allison Cornish 29:06
Yeah, again, we wanted to, we wanted, definitely to be a connected experience. And we wanted some (inaudible) we want any technology, that (crossover talk).
Michael LeBlanc 29:13
The, the NorthStar, right, everything, (crossover talk),
Allison Cornish 29:15
Everything's connected and we definitely want it to, you know, be a seamless sort of, something that could be adaptable, and used, you know, you can definitely put new technology initiatives out there and not have it be used.
Michael LeBlanc 29:25
Yeah, yeah.
Allison Cornish 29:27
But it's really again, sort of listening to what the needs are of the team members and what the needs are for the guests. And again, putting that in the forefront when we're making decisions.
Michael LeBlanc 29:35
Let's talk about a different type of technology. EV chargers are coming, it's coming eventually. I think it's a long way off though it could be shorter than I suspect for commercial transportation because I think there's such a possibility for that. How are you guys preparing for that future? I mean, it's clearly got a whole division that moves fuel around that's not going anywhere soon. But eventually, you know, we are going to see multiple charging stations and fast chargers and I guess it, it also recalibrates how you think about the duration of the guest, how long they stay, because there's not a quick pump of the fuel. You know, you got to, you know, you got to sit around for a little while. How are you guys starting to think about that?
Allison Cornish 30:09
Well, definitely, as part of the store modernization initiative, we are thinking about, I'd say, any guests in how they will feel in the future. So, whether that's through charge, whether it's fuel, alternative fuels, it's something that we're definitely thinking about. I am happy to announce that we actually signed an agreement with EVgo and GM earlier this year, and our plan is to install EV chargers at over 500 locations in the next three years. So, it's definitely something that we're thinking about. And again, you know, thinking through that EV guest, you know, again, it's important to have a comfortable place for them to stop in our facilities, but also go back to that breadth of offering not every like, like any-, anybody who's using a petroleum product, you know, the needs are different. And so again, having that breadth of the offering for every occasion, I think is really important.
Steve Dennis 30:59
Yeah, this is sort of a sample of one, but I have a Tesla and, and one of the Tesla supercharging stations is out in the suburb of Dallas where I live, you know, it takes 25-30 minutes to charge up. So like, now I'm here, I'm like, well, I'll go in, and I ended up sitting down and, you know, buying some food, and I spent, you know, 10 bucks or something on a bunch of stuff, just because I was, I was killing time. And it was and it was a pretty big store. So, there was actually a nice selection of choices. So, I hadn't really,
Michael LeBlanc 31:27
I gotta think it opens up a whole new segment of customers for you, right? Who are like, you know, your, your brand is, as you say, for the travel customer, but if I need to charge and there's not, you know, they're not plentiful? There's,
Steve Dennis 31:38
If I'm not in a hurry.
Michael LeBlanc 31:39
Well, (crossover talk) or, I don't know, how are our consumers thinking that I'm going to plan my day around it. So, I'm going to stop in for coffee, breakfast and, and do some work while I'm there. So, you must be thinking about that in layouts and all that, (crossover talk), right?
Allison Cornish 31:51
Yeah, absolutely having that, having, again, that breadth of offering that comes from places for them to sit. And I think one of the things that's really great about Pilot Company and where our locations are located again, it's right off the interstate.
Michael LeBlanc 32:00
Yeah, yeah.
Allison Cornish 32:02
So, you know, if you're traveling across the country, we're really going to help you with that range of anxiety. So, I think, I think we're poised, and we have a great network to help support the EV charger.
Michael LeBlanc 32:11
Well, it's a funny question but what's next? Because that's what we've been talking about for most of the, for most of the podcast. But, but as you think about it, obviously your major project is the big what's next. But what, what's the next kind of milestones or benchmarks? What are you thinking about?
Allison Cornish 32:25
Well, you know, as I said earlier, Pilot Flying J. has been in the innovation business since we started. So again, 64 years of innovation and we'll continue to innovate. And we'll continue to listen to the guests and continue to listen to our team members about what they need next. So, whether it's the next food trend, it's the next retail trend, again, it's the next fuel trend we'll continue to keep our ear to the ground and be ready. So, we can contin-, continuing to be the best place to stop on the interstate.
Michael LeBlanc 32:53
All right. Well, fantastic. Well, thanks so much for joining us here on the Remarkable Retail podcast. It's a real treat to meet you. Congratulations on your award, it's such a great milestone in your career and I wish you continued success in your organization. So, thanks for joining us on the Remarkable Retail podcast.
Allison Cornish 33:07
Thanks so much. I had a blast, guys.
Michael LeBlanc 33:08
If you like what you heard, please follow us on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform so you can catch up with all our great interviews, including Hal Lawton talking about Tractor Supply's remarkable, Life out Here growth story. New episodes of Season 5, presented by MarketDial will show up each and every Tuesday. And be sure to tell your friends and colleagues in the retail industry, all about us.
Steve Dennis 33:30
And I'm Steve Dennis, author of the bestselling book, ‘Remarkable Retail: How to Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption’. You can learn more about me, my consulting and keynote speaking at stevenpdennis.com.
Michael LeBlanc 33:44
And I am Michael LeBlanc, Consumer Retail Growth Consultant, keynote speaker and producer and host of a series of retail trade podcasts including this one. You can learn even more about me on LinkedIn and you can catch up with Steve and I in person at the NRF Big Show in New York January 16 on the stage talking about what it takes to be remarkable with The Container Store, SVP, Gretchen Ganc.
See you in New York, everyone.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
retail, guests, technology, bit, store, retailers, thinking, business, initiative, year, guess, food, fuel, big, locations, stores, team members