Nik Modi of RBC Capital Markets spoke at the CSP Center Store Forum on Sept. 10. | CSP Staff

How can convenience-store retailers grow in a low or no-growth environment?

That’s a question Nik Modi, managing director of Toronto-based RBC Capital Markets, asked at CSP’sCenter Store Forum on Sept. 10 in Lombard, Illinois.

“The good thing is, I think there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit that many of you can go after,” Modi said. “We’ve just got to be a little bit creative in how we think.”

Modi said there are many missed merchandising opportunities, he said, adding that while retailers play up Memorial Day, July Fourth, Halloween, Christmas and others, they ignore still other holidays.

“There’s all types of holidays being celebrated all year long,” he said. “You don’t need to be selling ethnic products to participate in Diwali or the Chinese New Year. I’m Indian, I’m not Mexican. I drink lots of margaritas during Cinco De Mayo.”

He added that there’s opportunity to take advantage of “these energy events, these merchandising events that aren’t being acted on.”

And it’s not just about ethnic holidays, he added.

“There’s so many micro events that are happening locally,” he said. “What’s your prom strategy? What’s your graduation strategy? What’s your homecoming strategy? What’s your watch party strategy?”

Modi said that his son, at his recent high school senior prom, was on a party bus that made four stops at convenience stores to buy snacks and other items.

“Chips and candy and Gatorade,” he said. “There’s so many of these events.”

At a presentation he did for a major beverage company, he asked them about their rush week strategy—“and they were like, ‘What are you talking about?’” he said.

He told the group if he searches online for their company name and “rush week,” “not a single sorority pops up,” Modi said.

When he searched for Poppi soda and rush week, however, “oh boy, totally different ballgame.”

“There’s just so many of these opportunities that you can activate,” Modi said. “You can be creative and partner with your retailers to really provide incremental opportunities to drive foot traffic and to drive sales.”

Give good experiences

Modi also talked about the importance of giving customers good experiences.

“Experience is greater than price,” he said. “If you’re going out for a burger and the burger cost 20 bucks, you’d be like, what? This is crazy. But if you’re at Disneyland, you’re getting a burger and it’s 20 bucks.”

How people behave on vacation is very different than how they behave at home, he said. “Because the vacation is the experience, so when you can attach the experience to something, you can charge more and discount less.”

One example Modi presented was that of Rice Krispie Treats, which had sales growth of 31.4% in 2021’s third quarter and 20.5% growth in 2021’s fourth quarter after 7.9% growth in the second quarter and 4.2% growth in the first quarter, according to NielsenIQ data he showed.

What happened?

Modi cited a fitness influencer on TikTok who said, “Having your Rice Krispy before a workout is the best pre-workout snack.”

The message was reposted hundreds and thousands of times, he said. “That’s what drove this. The digital is informing the physical world. We just have to acknowledge it. We have to be on top of it. We have to be aware.”

“Imagine how much money Kellogg’s would have to spend to actually get a lift like this, or the retailer would have to spend to get a lift like this,” he said.

Modi added that there are things retailers “can do that exist in the market today that will allow you to get growth in an environment where you can’t find growth.” 

If retailers hear of a trend, they should merchandise quickly.

He referenced a woman’s video in 2024 mixing Diet Coke with a protein beverage that got 2.5 million views online.

“How hard is it to put both of them next to each other with a protein Coke moniker merchandising signage?” Modi asked. “This is not expensive stuff, folks. We just have to get out of our traditional ways of doing things. We have to be innovative in this kind of environment.”

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