Back to Basics: Retail inspiration

Licensees can learn a lot from the success of convenience stores

Where is the hub of your local community? Increasingly, research shows, it is the convenience store. People are visiting the local shop, with its growing range of services, more frequently than the pub these days, and the gap is widening.

So is there something publicans can learn from a successful rival business? Tom Fender, sales and marketing director of consumer research firm him!, certainly thinks so.

Research shows that pub-goers want more from their local pub  not just food and drink but the kind of goods and services they cannot get at the shop. Pubs can still be the hub of the community, he says, but convenience stores are the ones to watch.

Food, coffee, soft drinks, snacks, good communications, fast service and being more actively local can all be used to put the pub at the heart of things.

Full article on: www.thepublican.com