NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Retailers attending the annual NACStech convention and trade showwhich opened Monday at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn.brought in a electronic laundry list of concerns ranging from data management to payment systems.
Though officials with the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) had not received word as to attendance by presstime, the numbers looked very positive. John Hervey with the Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS), Alexandria, Va., said that the trade show exhibits [image-nocss] were sold out this year, even with competition from the Retail Systems trade show going on simultaneously in Chicago.
People are beginning to spend more on technology, Hervey said, commenting on the strength of the vendor turnout. Payment systems have received a lot of interest, with many people trying new technologies such as biometric payment.
Developments with point-of-sale (POS) technology and other aspects of c-store automation tie into another big issue concerning retailers this year: data management. Retailers appeared interested in the progress of data exchange between trading partners (a process many referred to as data synchronization), which was the topic of a well-attended educational session on the first day of the conference. An estimated 75 people at the session listened to Jim Wenner, IT director for Altoona, Pa.-based Sheetz Inc., and Alvin Fortson, director of network system development for Sanford, N.C.-based The Pantry Inc., as they discussed the progress of their data-transfer processes.
Sheetz is currently in a pilot test with Anheuser-Busch distributors to automate item and pricing information, according to Wenner. We felt the greatest opportunity for improvements existed with pricebook automation, he said. But we had to find a supplier willing to work with us.
With 320 stores, Wenner said many of their item, price and promotion updates are paper-based. Accuracy from their internal processes and from the vendor side made for compelling reasons to automate.
For The Pantry, Fortson said his company was presently importing electronic invoices using PCATS-developed standards with five vendors. All of their other vendors handle invoices manually. He said their goal was to begin importing electronic invoices using PCATS standards with all of their vendors.
Standards are a tool for The Pantry to achieve larger corporate goals, Fortson said. Growth is a primary driver for us, he said. We're up to 1,500 stores and we had to look at where we had the resources and efficiencies to manage more stores with the same amount of people.
The future of automation at c-stores definitely centers around doing less with more, according to John Eul, an industry consultant who just took a position with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and its Data Center, Cambridge, Mass. With technology, we're going to be able to do more with less in terms of people, Eul told CSP Daily News. Eventually, we'll be outsourcing all our paperwork. Managers won't have to count cash or order product. That's all going to go away. Managers will be hired for their personality traits in dealing with customers, with employees and for being able to merchandise their stores.
The NACStech show, going on through tomorrow, will offer additional educational sessions on payment cards, foodservice and standards, as well as a trade show of automation vendors.Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.