district manager
How to Improve Customer Experience in Convenience Stores
Create consistent customer experiences across stores through clear service expectations, modeling behavior, tracking metrics & coaching empathy.
Mike Hernandez
27+ years in convenience store leadership. Founder of C-Store Thrive, sharing daily tips, strategies, and training to help store owners and managers grow sales and teams.
Shelf Sense
Category Scorecards: What to Track and How Often
Category scorecards track health, profitability, and velocity of every store section as an early-warning system for underperformance.
Profit Power
Profit Leaks: The Most Costly Accounting Mistakes Small Retail Businesses Make
60% of small businesses face tax headaches yearly from avoidable accounting mistakes like mixing finances, misclassifying expenses & skipping reconciliations.
Playbook Pro
Daily Sales Tracker: The Secret to Knowing Your Store's Numbers—Every Day
Instructions for busy convenience store managers to track sales daily in 3-5 minutes. Gather numbers from your POS (total sales, categories, shifts, customers), fill in the template on computer or paper, and compare to yesterday and last week to spot problems like 15% drops or unusual patterns.
Playbook Basics
Daily Sales Tracker: The Secret to Knowing Your Store's Numbers—Every Day
Most convenience store managers wait until month-end to see performance, missing problems and opportunities. Daily sales tracking of five key metrics—total sales, category breakdown, shift performance, customer count, and basket size—takes 5 minutes but changes everything.
Playbook Basics
How to Read a P&L (Fast)
Managers can read a P&L in under 5 minutes and know exactly where to focus. Scan key summaries (sales, gross profit, net profit), identify biggest movers in COGS and operating expenses over 10%, then take instant action on pricing, staffing schedules, and category promotions based on the data.
Growth Gear
Beyond Transaction: How Personalized Service Builds Unbreakable Convenience Store Customer Loyalty
Personalized service increases customer lifetime value 40-60% and reduces acquisition costs 50% through relationship-building connections.
district manager
How to Coach Store Managers on Loss Prevention
Loss prevention policies alone don't stop shrink. District managers must coach store managers to recognize risks, lead their teams, and hold employees accountable. Effective coaching frames shrink reduction as leadership, uses real store data, and reinforces habits during store visits.
Team Tactics
The Hidden Price Tag of Poor Hiring: How Bad Employee Decisions Drain Convenience Store Profits
Poor hiring costs $3,242+ per manager replacement, but hidden costs from productivity loss, customer damage & shrink are 3-5x higher.
Shelf Sense
Category Roles Decoded: Why Destination, Routine, Seasonal, and Convenience Categories Drive Different Customer Behaviors
Product categories serve four distinct roles: destination categories drive store traffic, routine categories build visit frequency, seasonal categories create profit surges, and convenience categories capture impulse purchases.
Profit Power
Daily Cash Flow Analysis: How Real-Time Financial Data Drives Better Store Decisions
Daily cash flow analysis tracks actual money available beyond sales totals. Operators implementing systematic tracking report 15-20% improvements in working capital efficiency. Unlike sales reports showing transactions, cash flow reveals timing mismatches between revenue and expenses for decisions.
Survival Stop Fiction
Chapter 10: Shift Changes
Ram and Rudy work the afternoon shift as the store settles into routine operations. Joseph reports another new hire named Teresa starting Monday. At 9:17 p.m., LD's voice delivers another cryptic message about "phase gate dormant" and directs them to check bin 3, where they find a black binder.