NEW YORK — Unlike railroad operators who saw themselves as being in the business of running trains rather than providing transportation—and therefore didn’t get into the airline business—it is clear that Amazon’s positioning is not to be just an online retail company. Rather, it aims to become the most convenient and economical way to get retail merchandise into the hands of consumers regardless of channel.

Amazon knows this will involve brick-and-mortar retailing, and that the technology and logistical capabilities they have developed in their online, autonomous-vehicle and cloud-computing businesses can be mobilized to achieve this goal.

While Amazon’s plan to acquire Whole Foods is in furtherance of this objective, my guess is the company’s leadership doesn’t have a fully thought out plan as to what they will do with the company. Instead, they intend to use it as a laboratory to develop and test new approaches—as well as to provide them with more expertise and more buying clout in the food-merchandise category.

Quite soon we may well see Amazon introduce some of its capabilities into Whole Foods stores, including such things as the elimination of checkouts, click-and-pick-up capabilities and personalized messaging to individual customers. However, it is going to take quite a long time for these things to be worked out and perfected, so I think the market has over-reacted to the deal for the short term.

For the longer term, “Amazonization” may well become pervasive and revolutionize the whole retail scene. However, none of this will happen in a vacuum, and all the major brick-and-mortar chains—Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, etc.—are looking at the same objective through the other end of the lens. So it is by no means clear how they will be impacted.

Amazonization will change the game, but it is not yet possible to forecast who the winners and losers will be. For smaller retailers, who can’t afford to develop their own solutions, it is probable that Amazon systems and technology will become available through licensing or other means.

Recent projections that 6 million retail jobs will be eliminated by automation over the next 10 years may well be valid. Certainly, there will be less brick-and-mortar stores, with fewer employees per store. But it is not yet clear how the additional logistical and technological jobs created by Amazonization will offset this.

And while Amazonization will undoubtedly impact convenience retailing, the good news is that brick-and-mortar convenience stores are likely to be less affected than other retail segments. People will still have to eat and will still run out of things, so they will continue to need physical places to go to when they need some instant gratification, have to make a stop while on the road, or to “run in when they run out.”

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Retailer Pilot Flying J will celebrate National Hot Dog Day, July 19, with a weeklong freebie celebration.

Customers can stop in for a free all-beef hot dog or any roller-grill item with coupon from July 19-26. The offer can be redeemed by displaying the online coupon available at NationalHotDogDay.PilotFlyingJ.com or on Pilot Flying J’s Facebook page at the time of purchase in-store.

“Whether you prefer the classic taste of an all-beef hot dog with your choice of toppings or choose to get more adventurous with a delicious tamale, egg roll or other menu item from the roller grill, Pilot Flying J has a number of great-tasting options to make your National Hot Dog Day custom to your preference,” said Shannon Johnson, vice president of food innovation for Pilot Flying J.

Pilot Flying J offers all-beef Oscar Mayer hot dogs at more than 500 locations, and the roller-grill menu includes a variety of other craveable options at select locations, including:

• Jalapeno Cheese Hot Dogs
• Cheese Smokies
• Cheeseburger Links
• Tornados
• Chicken Rollerbites
• Tamales
• Egg Rolls

The National Hot Dog Day promotion at participating Pilot and Flying J Travel Centers is valid for customers in the United States and Canada through 11:59 p.m. EDT on July 26.

Pilot Flying J, No. 12 on CSP‘s 2017 Top 202 list of the largest convenience-store chains in the United States, is based in Knoxville, Tenn. It has more than 750 retail locations in 43 states.

KAISER, Mo. – After 30 years in the convenience-store business, Wayne Compton, president of Mid-Missouri Oil Co. and Jiffy Stop Food Marts, is exiting the industry with the sale of the company’s seven locations to acquisition juggernaut GPM Investments LLC.

• Click here for a look at some of GPM’s deals.

As reported in a CSP Daily News Flash, GPM has taken ownership of the stores it purchased from Mid-Missouri Oil, Kaiser, Mo., which operated the stores in Camdenton, Eldon, Kaiser, Lake Ozark, Osage Beach, Sedalia and Versailles, Mo.

Compton said he will miss the excitement and challenges of the c-store industry but felt the time was right to let the “big operators get bigger” and for him and his daughter Cecily to focus on other projects, according to Terry Monroe, president of American Business Brokers & Advisors.

American Business Brokers & Advisors, an independent advisory and transaction-focused company based in Effingham, Ill., and WJF Services, a petroleum advisory service based in Normal, Ill., provided merger-and-acquisition (M&A) advisory services to Jiffy Stop.

This acquisition will further develop GPM’s existing portfolio in the Midwest region, the company said.

“We are very excited about these seven Jiffy Stop Food Marts. We plan to continue serving their customers with the same dedication and enthusiasm,” said Arie Kotler, CEO of GPM. “We look forward to our continued development as we grow through acquisitions.”

GPM, based in Richmond, Va., operates or supplies fuel to more than 1,100 stores in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. — Cumberland Farms customers have saved $75 million through the convenience-store chain’s SmartPay program since its launch in January 2013, according to the company.

Available as both a payment card and a mobile payment app, the program is free to join and free to use. SmartPay Check-Link users automatically save 10 cents on every gallon of gasoline, every day, when they fill up at any Cumberland Farms location throughout the Northeast and Florida.

In addition to reaching this savings milestone, Cumberland Farms has made SmartPay available to customers who do not have a checking account by offering the program to users of NetSpend, a prepaid debit card. Users simply need an eligible prepaid NetSpend card when registering for SmartPay. Cumberland Farms recently adjusted the sign-up process, shortening the verification period so customers can start using SmartPay to save at the pump sooner.

“When we first launched SmartPay just over four years ago, we had no idea how popular the program would become,” said Ari Haseotes, CEO of Cumberland Farms. “Our customers love the program, and it’s hard to believe that we’ve already achieved such an incredible milestone of $75 million in customer savings. SmartPay enrollments continue to grow each year, and we hope more of our customers will join the program so they too can start saving on gas, every day.”

In addition to saving 10 cents on every gallon of gas, SmartPay mobile app users receive a free Farmhouse Blend coffee, free Hyperfreeze beverage or free bottle of water for every 50 gallons of gas purchased.

Westborough, Mass.-based Cumberland Farms owns and operates a network of nearly 600 convenience stores across eight states.

STAMFORD, Conn. — Beer importer U.S. Beverage will now serve as the U.S. importer of certain specialty brands owned by Heineken N.V. via a new deal the two companies announced July 19.

“After an extensive review of our U.S. importation organizations and as a result of the evolution of the U.S. market, we are excited to partner with U.S. Beverage in our strategy to build our extensive portfolio of specialty international brands,” said Jose Luis Lopez Portillo, export director of Heineken Americas Export.

Initially, U.S. Beverage will bring eight beers from around the world to the United States. They include:

• Dragon Stout (Jamaica)
• Krusovice (Czech Republic)
• Zagorka (Bulgaria)
• Gosser (Austria)
• Bintang (Bali, Indonesia)
• Zajecarsko (Serbia)
• Cruzcampo (Spain)
• Alfa (Greece)

Other brands may be added over time and “may include brands from Europe, Latin America, South America and [Southeast] Asia.” The deal does not include brands that are handled by Heineken USA or its affiliate Five Points Trading Co.

“Heineken has partnered with U.S. Beverage in part for a number of years and has proven itself as a builder of premium brands throughout the United States,” Portillo said. “We are quite confident and excited that our partnership will provide national growth in the important U.S. market.”

Justin Fisch, vice president, general manager, for U.S. Beverage, added, “We are honored to continue our relationship with Heineken Americas Export and their superb team of managers. We are very excited by the opportunity to take these extraordinary brands to new levels of success in the United States.”

U.S. Beverage is a premium craft- and imported-beer sales and marketing company located in Stamford, Conn. Its brands include Innis & Gunn, Moosehead, Sonoma Cider, Malibu Beer and others.

Amsterdam-based Heineken N.V. has a portfolio of more than 250 international, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders, many of which are not available in the United States.

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Kwik Trip Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of PDQ Food Stores Inc. PDQ is an employee-owned company based in Middleton, Wis. Its assets include 34 company-operated convenience stores located in Southeastern Wisconsin.

This acquisition allows Kwik Trip to expand its presence in a market that is important to its overall retail growth strategy, the company said.

The transaction is scheduled to be completed in early October and is subject to PDQ employee approval and other customary closing conditions. Kwik Trip plans to operate the acquired stores under the existing PDQ banner until planned remodels and reimaging are completed in mid-2018.

In 2015, Kwik Trip celebrated its 50th year of operation. “Our family is committed to owning and growing the company for another 50 years,” said Mark Zietlow, real estate manager and third-generation owner. “The PDQ store locations are an excellent fit in our growth strategy for Wisconsin.”

“Kwik Trip and our family are committed to providing good-paying jobs for all of our current and future co-workers. With the acquisition of PDQ and future remodel of the PDQ locations, we anticipate adding more than 1,000 jobs,” he said.

Founded in 1965 in Eau Claire, Wis., Kwik Trip is one of the largest independently held c-store chains in the United States. Now based in La Crosse, Wis., it owns and operates more than 570 stores in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and in Iowa as Kwik Star, and employs more than 19,000 people.

RICHMOND, Va. — GPM Investments LLC has taken ownership of seven convenience stores with fuel sales in Missouri under the Jiffy Stop Food Marts banner. CSP Daily News has learned that GPM has purchased the locations from Mid-Missouri Oil Co., Kaiser, Mo., which operates stores in Camdenton, Eldon, Kaiser, Lake Ozark, Osage Beach, Sedalia and Versailles, Mo.

This acquisition will further develop GPM’s existing portfolio in the Midwest region, the company said.

“We are very excited about these seven Jiffy Stop Food Marts. We plan to continue serving their customers with the same dedication and enthusiasm,” said Arie Kotler, CEO of GPM. “We look forward to our continued development as we grow through acquisitions.”

The company is retaining the stores’ employees.

“Bringing these employees into the GPM family was very important to our leadership team,” he said.

GPM, based in Richmond, Va., operates or supplies fuel to more than 1,100 stores in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

WASHINGTON — Philip Morris International (PMI) has filed an extensive number of documents with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in an effort to gain approval to sell its new heat-not-burn iQOS device in the United States. And while the FDA recently published much of the material, product research largely remains blacked out.

The word “redacted” has been in national headlines recently with regard to FBI investigations into last fall’s presidential elections. The term referred to people’s names being blacked out, or redacted, from documents made public. Similarly, documents that New York-based PMI filed with the FDA to get approval to market iQOS in the United States were largely blacked out. The files had titles such as Comparability Report, Comparability Study and Scientific Report—Carbonyls.

Much of what is revealed speaks to scientific methodology, like what standards researchers will adhere to and what metrics will be used. The available language revealed little about what was being compared to what, or if proving a health benefit or any reduced-risk quality was the goal of any particular report. However, the available language did refer to clinical trials, “potentially harmful and quantifiable constituents,” and carcinogens.

One document described the testing of the product’s storage time and shelf life. It addressed testing methods to see if samples of product would function the way they were supposed to after a certain amount of time had passed.

While heavily edited, the documentation also revealed the body of research that has gone into the development of iQOS and appeared to support many industry claims that the FDA’s new-product application process for tobacco can be extensive and costly.

The published material revealed many other aspects of the heat-not-burn device, including an extensive product description and proposed advertising materials. Watch CSP Daily News for details.

WASHINGTON — With gasoline prices averaging about $2.28 per gallon in the middle of July, summer gasoline prices are set to reach their second-lowest average since 2005.

According to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) July 2017 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the retail price for regular-grade gasoline will average $2.38 per gallon for summer 2017, or April through September. While this is higher than summer 2016’s average of $2.23 per gallon, it is slightly lower than EIA first projected in its April 2017 summer STEO.  Lower crude prices triggered the downward revision in the gasoline price forecast.

EIA is now projecting Brent crude prices to average $50 per barrel for the summer, off from the $54-per-barrel estimate in the April STEO. The agency points to increased drilling activity and production from U.S. oil producers, as well as Libya and Nigeria. This increased activity has offset some of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) production cuts.

The $4-per-barrel difference between EIA’s April forecast and the most recent price projection translates to about a 10-cent-per-gallon (CPG) decrease in gasoline prices. Each barrel of oil contains 42 gallons, so each dollar of change in its price equates to a 2.4-CPG change in gasoline prices. However, higher wholesale margins for refiners and distributors will partly offset the gasoline price impact, resulting in a smaller, 8-CPG decrease to retail gasoline prices.

EIA is forecasting gasoline wholesale margins—or the difference between the wholesale price of gasoline and the Brent price—to average 47 CPG this summer, about 5 CPG higher than it projected in the April STEO.

U.S. gasoline demand dropped 1.1% through the first four months of 2017 vs. the same period in 2016, which saw record demand. However, it is still 3.1% above the five-year average.

Retail gasoline prices likely hit their summer peak with April’s $2.42-per-gallon average. For the remainder of the season, EIA expects gasoline prices to continue to decrease to an average of $2.33 per gallon in September. Easing this decline in retail gasoline prices are shrinking wholesale margins, which EIA forecasts to drop from 52 CPG in June to 38 CPG in September. This would follow wholesale margins’ typical seasonal decline at summer’s end, when consumption drops.

TORONTO — Brookfield Business Partners LP has closed its transaction to acquire Loblaw Cos. Ltd.’s gas-station operations for approximately $540 million ($427.5 million U.S.).

The network is one of the largest in Canada and includes 213 retail gas stations and associated convenience kiosks adjacent to Loblaw-owned grocery stores across the country.

The gas stations will be rebranded Mobil as part of an agreement with Imperial Oil, marking the introduction of the Mobil fuel brand into Canada. The company expects to start the rebranding process by early fall. The gas stations will continue to allow customers to collect PC points through Loblaw’s PC Plus loyalty program and by using PC Financial products.

Brampton, Ontario-based Loblaw offers grocery, pharmacy, health and beauty, apparel, general merchandise, banking, and wireless mobile products and services through more than 2,300 corporate, franchised and associate-owned locations.

Brookfield Business Partners, Toronto, is a business services and industrial company focused on owning and operating businesses that benefit from barriers to entry or low production costs.