Have you ever been standing in a line at a “Convenience store” waiting for the clerk to serve a person in front of you wanting to buy lottery tickets or cigarettes or propane? If so, you have not been shopping at a convenience store owned by a customer of Ozanne Analytics. Customer service with rapid entrance and egress is never more important than at a convenience store. Customers are in a hurry whether it be to get their morning coffee or pick up that missing ingredient required at the party that is about to start. Service delay causes dissatisfaction and a search for a satisfying experience some place else. Working with a chain of regional convenience stores in an analysis of their store level data and data about the environment in which each store operates, our analysis showed that there were clear store characteristics related to increased revenue and, even more so, increased profitability. There were the easy answers that most convenience stores discovered years ago that are directly related to ease of entrance and egress:

1. Sufficient parking;
2. Stop light allowing for a guaranteed maximum waiting time;
3. No divider strips limiting access from one direction; and
4. A corner location.

Perhaps, since most convenience stores incorporate two or more of these in there site location, these were not the large drivers of profitability. A relatively straightforward statistical analysis of the data revealed one characteristics of store service related to a 6% elevation in revenue and a double digit profit differential. These stores were few in number, but each had an innovative manager and one common characteristic – they had established a second check-out to handle “special event” purchases, usually the sale of lottery tickets. A potential revenue/profit enhancement solution seemed at hand. From here, the only challenge left was to decide what other slow moving services should be offered at a separate check-out point and two other services emerged from observation and discussion – cigarette and propane sales. Second check-out points were established to handle these slower moving types of transactions including:

1. Lottery;
2. Propane;
3. Cigarettes usually; and
4. Sometimes gasoline.

This approach allowed the quick entrance and exit customers to avoid the interference of slower moving customers. Customer satisfaction increased and profitability rose substantially and even more than predicted.