OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. — Vaping product loomed large in Convenience Store Products’ first quarterly look at the most-searched new products on its just-launched website.

The magazine presents the 25 most popular new products of the quarter, from tobacco products to beverages, candy and foodservice items.

Here are the top 10 (click through to the new Convenience Store Products website for the full list):

1. Swedish Match White Owl Very Berry, Swedish Match North America
2. Pure CBD Hemp Oil Vapor, Pure CBD Vapors
3. Avail Vapor VaporVaultz, Pure CBD Vapors
4. Nest Fresh Two Perfectly Peeled Hard Boiled Eggs, Nest Fresh Eggs
5. Harry & David Moose Munch Bars, Harry & David
6. Leer Self-Serve Ice Breaker, Leer/Carroll Coolers
7. BIC USA Special Edition Millennial Series, BIC USA Inc.
8. Austin Mohawk canopy, Austin Mohawk
9. PepsiCo AMP Energy, PepsiCo
10. Krispy Krunchy Mac-N-Cheese, Krispy Krunchy Foods LLC

Convenience Store Products is a publication of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based Winsight LLC (formerly CSP Business Media), a market-dominant, business-to-business media and information company specializing in the convenience-retailing, restaurant and noncommercial foodservice industries. Winsight has an extensive media portfolio of leading publications, including CSP, Restaurant Business, FoodService Director and Convenience Store Products, a suite of digital products including websites, e-newsletters (Restaurant Business Daily and CSP Daily News) and webinars, plus video products, mobile and tablet apps, custom marketing solutions and the convenience-retailer intelligence tool, CSPedia.

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. – CSP magazine’s 2015 Retail Leader of the Year honoree is Tony Kenney, president of Speedway LLC. CSP and Winsight LLC will honor Kenney Monday, Oct. 12, at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas during an invitation-only dinner and toast.

The 13th-annual awards dinner and toast honors a convenience-retailing executive for leadership excellence, innovation within the chain and perseverance within his or her company, positively transforming the organization to new and higher levels. Past honorees have included Sam L. Susser, chairman of Susser Petroleum Partners; John MacDougall, president & CEO of Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes; Don Zietlow, CEO of Kwik Trip; and Joe DePinto, president & CEO of 7-Eleven Inc.

“Tony Kenney is the real deal,” said Mitch Morrison, vice president and group editor, convenience, for Winsight. “He sets high expectations, knowing that his team will rise to the challenge. He has been instrumental in Speedway’s leap toward the top of many aspects of the convenience-store industry, engineering the biggest M&A deal of 2014 with Speedway’s acquisition of the Hess retail network. The vision, integrity and commitment Tony instills truly shines through everyone he comes into contact with.”

Pioneered by Tony for the past decade, Speedway has taken the company to all-time-high levels. The deal with Hess made Speedway the second-largest company-owned and -operated c-store retailer in the United States, with more than 2,760 stores across 22 states. Speedy Rewards, with more than 5 million members, is the convenience industry’s seminal loyalty program. And the company has a strong commitment to helping others in need. Speedway has donated a total of more than $68 million as a sponsor of the 19 Children’s Miracle Network hospitals for the past 24 years.

Winsight is proud to honor Tony as its 2015 Retail Leader of the Year.

Winsight LLC (formerly CSP Business Media) is a market-dominant, business-to-business media and information company specializing in the convenience-retailing, restaurant and noncommercial foodservice industries. Winsight has an extensive media portfolio of four leading publications, including CSP, Restaurant Business, FoodService Director and Convenience Store Products, a suite of digital products including websites, e-newsletters (Restaurant Business Daily and CSP Daily News) and webinars, plus video products, mobile and tablet apps, custom marketing solutions and the convenience-retailer intelligence tool, CSPedia. The Winsight Events group produces six exclusive, large-scale executive-level conferences—Restaurant Leadership Conference, FARE Conference, Outlook Leadership, Convenience Retailing University, FSTEC and MenuDirections—in addition to more than 12 major EduNetworking conferences and advisory meetings. Winsight recently acquired Technomic, Inc., the leading provider of primary and secondary market information and advisory services to the food industry. Winsight is the recognized leader in the markets it serves. For more information on Winsight and its brands, go to www.winsightmedia.com.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — In an acquisition and restructuring of a multi-use property in Riverside, Calif., Getty Realty Corp. has purchased the real estate and Coastline Partners Inc. has become the master tenant and operator of what is now known as Riverside Travel Center.

Coastline Partners Inc. purchased the nearly 2.6-acre property out of bankruptcy in late 2014 from the owner’s estate for $3 million. The property includes a retail gas station, large-format convenience store, a restaurant space, smog shop and a Meineke repair shop. There is also a vacant adjoining parcel that will be redeveloped.

Getty Realty provided sale-leaseback financing in 2014.

Following a number of strategic management and operational changes, the retail gas facility–previously under the Mobil brand–is now Shell branded following a re-imaging plan completed by distributor SC Fuels.

The large format convenience store was successfully re-opened and will be fully operational following transfer of appropriate permits. The current plan for the convenience store is to eventually carry a recognized brand under a franchise agreement.

Petroleum Equity Group Ltd. served as the exclusive advisor for this transaction.

“This was an incredibly complex transaction, and we were so thankful to have the commitment of partners like Coastline and Getty Realty,” said Ken Shriber, CEO of Petroleum Equity Group.

“The yearlong purchase process was exhaustive, and we are so pleased that in the end we were victorious in securing the property, improvements and businesses,” Eric Dransfield, CEO of Eureka, Calif.-based Coastline said. “The management team appreciates the support from Getty Realty, and we will continue to work tirelessly to become a premier master tenant and operator.”

Mike Montgomery, COO of Coastline, said, “We plan additional future transactions together as we develop our growth plans in Southern California.”

Petroleum Equity Group, Chappaqua, N.Y., is a full service advisory company to the downstream fuels industry, providing business assessment and valuation analysis, merger and acquisition support, financing and related services.

Jericho, N.Y.-based Getty Realty is a leading publicly traded real-estate investment trust (REIT) specializing in ownership, leasing and financing of convenience-store and gas-station properties. The company owns and leases approximately 930 properties nationwide.

WASHINGTON — Any foodservice operator or convenience-store retailer hoping to deliver a brand message via today’s digital universe ought to think about content quality and platform delivery, according to a digital-media executive speaking at Winsight’s annual FSTEC foodservice technology conference.

Presenting in a general session before about 500 people attending the annual foodservice-technology conference, Marty Moe, president, Vox Media, Washington, said the two things that have distinguished his five-year-old digital-media company have been the quality of the writing across numerous general-media categories—dining, fashion, news, technology and sports—and special attention to the distinct social-media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and even Amazon) are key to successfully garnering audiences in a digital age.

He spoke of his media products garnering 165 million readers a month, going up to 300 million if he adds in social-media platforms.

“There was a time when [print] dollars became digital pennies, when unpaid writers produced [low-quality] content,” Moe said. “We felt we could produce high-quality content at a scale that would generate a great audience, one looking for original, beautiful content.”

In turn, he said the advertising and brand-building messages had to be “as smart and as beautiful” as the editorial content. Moe said his company built a video studio to help create the kind of quality visuals required of his digital-media brands.

In his stable are online websites aimed at enthusiasts and educated readers on any number of fronts, including consumer technology, video games, dining, architecture, real estate and general news.

“Technology these days is a central, cultural force in the way music was in the 60s,” Moe said. “We see Verge [our technology website] as what ‘Rolling Stone’ was for that generation.”

LONDON — An Anheuser-Busch InBev NV takeover of SABMiller PLC has been rumored for so long that people might be tempted to take its merits at face value, but several analysts think the drawbacks and obstacles in such a deal outweigh any advantages, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Buying SABMiller, which has operations in 80 countries, is a considerably riskier deal than AB InBev’s leadership has attempted before—with either its 2008 acquisition of Anheuser-Busch or its 2013 deal to buy Mexican brewing giant Grupo Modelo SAB.

One issue is price. AB InBev’s courtship of its smaller rival was confirmed Sept. 16, when SABMiller was forced to put out a statement by the U.K.’s takeover regulator after its shares moved on media speculation. The publicity could make it harder for AB InBev’s management to “maintain financial discipline,” RBC analyst James Edwardes Jones told the newspaper. Above an offer price for SABMiller of $63.62 a share, or about $103 billion, “any acquisition would move into the realms of value destruction,” he said.

The payoffs likely wouldn’t come quickly, either. If AB InBev were to buy SABMiller for the price noted above, it would take seven years for the return of capital from the deal to exceed SABMiller’s underlying cost of capital, said Bernstein analyst Trevor Stirling, as cited by WSJ.

Another issue is how the deal would be structured, given that SABMiller’s largest shareholders, Altria Group Inc. and the Santo Domingo family of Colombia, would prefer shares over cash for taxation purposes.

“We are not convinced that the potential acquisition of SABMiller would work culturally or strategically,” said Edwardes Jones, who downgraded AB InBev’s shares following the announcement about a possible takeover of SABMiller and cut his price target on the stock.

SABMiller’s dominant position in Africa—where it operates on its own or through partnership in 37 countries—was widely seen as a key driver of AB InBev’s interest in the company, but some analysts posit that operating on the continent would present a raft of challenges for AB InBev.

SABMiller and AB InBev declined to comment.

While SABMiller doesn’t mind taking a back seat on certain businesses, AB InBev likes to stay in control. Roughly 30% of SABMiller’s earnings last year came from entities it doesn’t control, but AB InBev’s share of such income was just 0.1%, illustrating a distinctly different attitude toward how to make profit.

With SABMiller’s and AB InBev’s respective roles as bottlers for Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. there is a chance that one of those lucrative relationships might have to be jettisoned given the rivalry between the soft-drink makers.

“In a transformational deal, you would expect some sort of give-and-take on the overall strategy, but this would be more than a give-and-take, it would be a fundamental overhaul,” Edwardes Jones said.

COLLEGEDALE, Tenn. — Drake’s Funny Bones are officially making a return to convenience-store and other retailers’ shelves in the Northeast.

Since Drake’s Cakes came back on the market in 2013, customers on social media sites have been asking for the return of this variety. Facebook pages, such as “Bring Back Drake’s Cakes Funny Bones,” have also popped up in an effort to show McKee Foods just how much people want the treats back.

Funny Bones are made with devil’s food cake, filled with peanut butter creme and coated in milk chocolate-flavored icing. First introduced in 1961, Funny Bones have developed a loyal following across all age groups, said the company.

“Loyal fans of Funny Bones told us how much they missed their favorite Drake’s variety, and we wanted to bring it back the way they remember,” said Chip Stenberg, Drake’s associate brand manager. “After a significant investment in state-of-the-art bakery equipment, we’re now ready to return Funny Bones to the market.”

In September, several lucky Drake’s Cakes Twitter fans won the opportunity to enjoy Funny Bones before they hit store shelves. Beginning in October, Drake’s Funny Bones will be available in supermarkets, supercenters, value retailers and convenience stores throughout the Northeast.

As with all Drake’s Cakes, Funny Bones are certified kosher by the Orthodox Union.

Drake’s founder Newman E. Drake established the brand in 1896, selling sliced pound cake in New York City. Now a part of the Collegedale, Tenn.-based McKee Foods family bakery, Drake’s Cakes are baked fresh and delivered directly to neighborhood stores in the Northeast.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —Stripes Convenience Stores will be celebrating Día de los Muertos, a Mexican holiday that takes place on November 2, with a release of two limited-edition Dia de los Muertos commemorative cups available in now.

Stripes and Coca-Cola have partnered to launch their first-ever Dia de los Muertos commemorative cups, which are exclusive to Stripes convenience stores throughout Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

The cups are priced $2.99, and include the first fill free.

Each cup was created by two aspiring young Texas artists; Elisa Rector, a 29-year-old South Texas native who specializes in Día de los Muertos art, and 24-year-old Christian Lain, a professional tattoo artist who lives in Corpus Christi.

Both artists commissioned by Stripes Stores and Coca-Cola were given the creative freedom to design their own interpretation of the Companies’ commemorative Día de Los Muertos cup. Rector painted an original piece and drew her inspiration from her South Texas roots using acrylic paint. Lain used watercolors to design his original, pulling from the culture of calling South Texas his home. Each artist was asked to incorporate the Stripes stores and Coca-Cola logo on their design.

Rector designed the turquoise cup with the “Dia de lose Muertos” couple, and Lain designed the charcoal tumbler with a traditional calavera design.

Customers interested in a chance to win a 2015 Limited-Edition Día de Los Muertos commemorative cup must submit their best Día de los Muertos face painting photo through a comment on the Stripes Facebook page starting October 30. The company will chose winners at random, to be announced on November 2.

Stripes operates more than 700 convenience stores in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Restaurant service is available in more than 440 of its stores, primarily under the proprietary Laredo Taco Co. brand.

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. – Whether they are giving to hospitals and schools or hosting charity golf tournaments, convenience stores are not ones to shy away from helping their communities.

Here are some recent examples:

Stewart’s Shops

Stewart’s Shops and the Dake family have announced a $250,000 donation to The Snuggery at Glens Falls Hospital.

The Snuggery is the hospital’s birthing unit, which is celebrating its 30th birthday.

Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based Stewart’s Shops operates more than 330 convenience stores in New York and Vermont.

Smoker Friendly

Smoker Friendly International and the Cigarette Store Corp.’s 89 Smoker Friendly and Gasamat stores delivered funds totaling $100,237 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Colorado.

The efforts of store clerks and managers selling ribbons and roundups on transactions combined with an auction at the 19th Annual Smoker Friendly Conference and Tobacco Festival made this possible.

Boulder, Colo.-based Smoker Friendly operates nearly 100 corporate-owned stores in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Utah and Wyoming. Another approximately 850 stores in 38 states are operated by licensed retailers. Smoker Friendly’s parent company also operates the Gasamat chain of gas stations and convenience stores.

Parker’s

Parker’s will host the third-annual Fueling the Community Charity Golf Tournament on October 27 at The Club at Savannah Harbor.

This tournament encourages players to tee off for charity, supporting education, healthcare and other causes in coastal Georgia and South Carolina. Last year, the tournament raised more than $70,000 for charity, attracting 144 players from across the region.

The golf tournament will feature a scramble playing format, offering prizes for the first-, second- and third-place teams. The tournament will offer Closest to the Hole, Longest Drive, Chip Off the Deck and Putting contests.

Parker’s, founded in 1976, currently operates 38 convenience stores and employs nearly 500 people throughout Georgia and South Carolina. Its headquarters is in Savannah, Ga.

VERC Enterprises

VERC Enterprises will again participate in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, slated for October 4 at the Hatch Shell in Boston.

Erin Fitzpatrick, the company’s marketing assistant and social media manager said that the company’s goal is to have 100 VERC team members participate.

The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk is an opportunity to honor breast cancer survivors, increase awareness about the disease and raise money to help the American Cancer Society fight the disease through research, information and services.

VERC Enterprises is now accepting donations with canisters placed in each of its 24 locations.

The goal, said Fitzpatrick, is to raise $10,000.

Duxbury, Ma-based VERC, and Mobil/Gulf gasoline operator, has nearly 30 gas stations and convenience stores in eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Jackson’s Food Stores

Jacksons Food Stores Inc. has partnered with the Dairy Farmers of Washington and the Dairy Farmers of Oregon to present two schools with iPad Learning Labs.

It donated learning labs containing 10 iPad devices and a mobile cart that can store, charge and sync up to 30 iPad devices to Buckman Arts Focus Elementary in Portland, Ore., and Forest Park Elementary in Lake Forest Park, Wash.

Both donations were made possible through Jacksons Food Stores’ “Milk Builds Strong Schools” campaign. The campaign, which ran March 18 to May 26 in its stores in both Oregon and Washington, set aside 5% of milk gallon sales to fund an iPad Learning Lab. Both schools were selected at random in a drawing of all public schools in the two states.

This is the third year that Jacksons Food Stores and the Dairy Farmers of Washington have partnered to donate a learning lab to a public school.

Jacksons Food Stores, Meridian, Idaho, has more than 200 stores in five western states.

NEW YORK — About eight in 10 households (79%) expect to make Halloween-related purchases this holiday season, up from 74% in 2014, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Halloween Consumer Spending Survey.

Three-quarters of American households (76%) expect to spend about the same or more this year on Halloween items than they did last year.

The most popular purchases Halloween shoppers plan to make are:

• Candy and other food and beverages (76% of households)
• Household decorations (44%), and
• Costumes (39%).

Nearly all Halloween shoppers surveyed (99%) plan to make an in-store purchase this year. Just over one-third of households (36%) plan to make an online purchase that they’ll get shipped to their home, and 22% say they will buy Halloween items online and pick them up in-store.

When asked what influences their decision to shop in stores, Halloween shoppers said they like the convenience of one-stop shopping (34%), the ability to see, touch or try on merchandise in-store (34%), and they don’t want to pay for shipping (32%).

The most popular destinations for Halloween shoppers are:

• Discount stores such as Target, Walmart or Kmart (73%)
• Grocery stores (51%)
• Clothing or Halloween/costume specialty stores (24%), and
• Chain drug stores such as CVS or Walgreens (24%).

Just 14% of Halloween shoppers expect to make purchases from online-only retailers like Amazon or Overstock.

“As omnichannel shopping continues to pick up steam, both consumers and retailers will benefit greatly,” said Jesse Tron, ICSC spokesperson. “Shoppers will see even more seamless offerings that blend digital browsing and research with the convenience and speed of the in-store experience. And store retailers can rejoice, since 84% of online Halloween shoppers picking up items in-store say they’re likely to buy additional items that were not part of their original purchase.”

Overall, Halloween shoppers plan to allocate their budgets as follows:

• In-store spend: 83%
• Purchase online and ship to home: 12%
• Purchase online and pick up in store: 5%

For the second year running, the top Halloween costumes for boys and girls 17 and under will be superheroes and princesses, respectively (12% each). Superheroes also claim the No. 2 spot for girls (3%). For boys, the second-most popular costume pick is villains (6%).

While the majority of these “heroes” and “princesses” will be seen trick or treating in their respective neighborhoods (56%), parents also plan to take their kids trick or treating in other ways such as a community-sponsored event (19%), schools (13%) and malls or shopping centers (12%).

The ICSC Halloween Consumer Spending Survey was conducted online by Opinion Research Corp. on behalf of ICSC from September 21-23, 2015. The survey represents a demographically representative U.S. sample of 1,000 adults 18 years of age and older.

WINAMAC, Ind. — Good Oil Co. has joined forces with OpenStore by GasBuddy to reach loyal customers on the go with a new mobile app and website

Good Oil currently owns and operates 14 convenience stores in Indiana and Illinois under the Good To Go brand. Don and Dean Good, operators of Good Oil, have long recognized the changing environment in the gasoline service station industry.

OpenStore by GasBuddy’s mobile app allows retailers to send targeted deals, coupons and messages directly to customers’ mobile phones. Good To Go’s already popular loyalty programs are completely integrated into their mobile app, eliminating the need for plastic loyalty cards. Customers can now earn rewards through their phones in addition to receiving exclusive coupons and prizes.

“Good Oil Co.’s partnership with OpenStore marks the beginning of a powerful and effective digital marketing strategy,” said Jason Toews, CEO of OpenStore by GasBuddy, Gaithersburg, Md. “By collaborating with OpenStore, Good Oil Co. will drive in-store sales and stay in touch with customers whenever and wherever they are.”

“We pride ourselves in community involvement, integrity, and high moral standards,” said Nicole Earp, CFO at Good Oil. “We emphasize commitment and hope to provide value to the cities and towns that have allowed us to become part of their communities. That is what this app is all about. It will have games and contests that allow us to give back to our customers. The more they use it, the more they benefit. There is no cost, only a chance to save and win.”

OpenStore by GasBuddy is a solution that increases customer loyalty by providing two-way communication between convenience-store owners and customers using web technologies and custom-branded mobile applications. The OpenStore dashboard allows the user to collect customer feedback, manage social media, and deliver mobile coupons and text message campaigns all from one location.

Winamac, Ind.-based Good Oil was founded by Don O. Good Sr. in 1941. The sites are under the BP, CITGO, Marathon and Phillips 66 brands.