WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Officials with the regional convenience-store stalwart Kum & Go released architectural images of designs for its new corporate offices, with construction of the Krause Gateway Center set to move forward as early as this week.

Workers have installed construction fencing around the perimeter of the project in downtown Des Moines and demolition of existing buildings is slated to begin. The company will hold a groundbreaking event later this fall and expects construction to continue through early 2018, officials said.

Kum & Go organizers are scheduled to present updated plans for the new headquarters to the Urban Design Review Board this week. That presentation will include the formal release of updated, photograph-like renderings of the building.

In June, Kum & Go shared the designs for the five-story structure, built to provide associates with a modern and highly collaborative work environment that offers flexibility for growth.

Building highlights include:

• Natural, abundant light throughout the building.
• Collaborative work environments.
• Outdoor meeting space.
• Rooftop garden.
• Dedicated space for training.
• Multi-purpose room for all-company gatherings and events.
• Fitness room and adjoining locker room.
• Game room.
• Art collection.
• 225 underground parking spaces.

Kum & Go, West Des Moines, Iowa, is the fifth-largest, privately held and company-operated convenience store chain in the United States. Established in Hampton, Iowa, in 1959, the family-owned Kum & Go has since grown to employ more than 4,700 associates across more than 430 stores and 11 states (Iowa, Arkansas, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming).

LAVAL, Quebec — Alimentation Couche-Tard shareholders will vote Tuesday on a proposal to extend the tenure of the founding directors of the company, possibly forcing turnover of company leadership sooner than those founders would like.

In July, the company asked its shareholders to approve amendments that would maintain its dual-class structure longer, so that its four founders can remain involved in guiding the chain for years to come, as previously reported in CSP Daily News.

Together, co-founders and directors of the board Alain Bouchard (executive chairman of the board), Jacques D’Amours (former vice president of administration), Richard Fortin (former CFO) and Réal Plourde (former COO) currently own about 22.7% of the issued and outstanding shares of Couche-Tard, according to the SEC documents. Most of these shares are multiple-voting shares with 10 votes each, but they are subject to a sunset provision that would remove their superior voting status when:

*the youngest of the founders turns 65 years old or passes away, whichever happens first; or

*the day when the founders hold, directly or indirectly, collectively less than 50% of the voting rights attached to all outstanding voting shares of Couche-Tard.

D’Amours is the youngest at age 58, followed by Plourde (65) and Bouchard and Fortin, who are both 66 years old. Bouchard retired as president and CEO of Couche-Tard in September 2014, replaced by Brian Hannasch.

Now Couche-Tard is asking shareholders during its Sept. 22 annual meeting to vote on amendments that would extend the dual-class structure.

The founders had initially suggested their multiple-voting shares retain their power as long as they or their families held at least 50% of the company’s voting rights, according to a report in The Globe & Mail.

That proposal, however, was modified three times before it reached shareholders. The next suggestion was that the dual-class voting structure end when the last of the founders died. Then, it changed so at least one founder needed to be “actively involved” in the business for the special voting rights to continue, according to the report. “Actively involved” meant at least one founder needed to be on the board of directors.

The decision is now in shareholders’ hands, and it could be a struggle to gain the extension, according to the newspaper report.

“Expect the vote to be close, as the proposal on Tuesday’s ballot needs two-thirds support from ordinary shareholders to pass,” the newspaper reported. “Last year, a stockholder proposal to change Couche-Tard’s director election methods garnered the support of 68% of the subordinate shareholders, despite being opposed by the founders. Clearly, Couche-Tard investors can appreciate the gains of the stock, but they may require a little more satisfaction from the company’s governance structure.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. National Park Service announced this week that it would ban electronic cigarette use in its parks, echoing its policy with regular cigarettes.

“Protecting the health and safety of our visitors and employees is one of the most critical duties of the National Park Service,” director Jonathan Jarvis said in making the announcement. “We are therefore extending the restrictions currently in place protecting visitors and employees from exposure to tobacco smoke to include exposure to vapor from electronic smoking devices.”

Vapor exhaled from electronic cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) contains nicotine at a level roughly one-tenth of that found in second-hand smoke, Jarvis noted.

The policy memorandum establishes National Park Service guidance on the use of ENDS and is effective immediately. Under this guidance, the use of ENDS will not be allowed within all facilities and vehicles that are government owned or leased, and within all national park concessions facilities.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — This week, Kum & Go opened its newest Iowa convenience store and one of its latest to sell E15, the 15% ethanol blend.

The 5,000-square-foot store in Des Moines is Kum & Go L.C.’s 157th in Iowa and its eighth to offer E15. In April, the chain opened the first location to sell E15 in Windsor Heights, Iowa. It now has five in Iowa, two in Arkansas and one in Oklahoma.

Over the next two years, Kum & Go plans to offer E15 at more than 65 sites in those three states, as well as in Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri and South Dakota. Nationwide, only about 120 fueling locations sell E15.

The “Keo Way” Kum & Go, as the new site is known, also sells E10, E85 and diesel.

Another highlight of the new site is its “eco-friendly” features. Kum & Go has committed to designing and constructing new builds to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards and submitting them for certification. The chain has more than 100 LEED-certified sites, reportedly the most of any c-store retailer worldwide.

The store also features an on-site kitchen that prepares made-to-order pizzas, baked goods and breakfast and deli sandwiches on a daily basis. As part of its grand opening celebrations this week, the Keo Way Kum & Go offered coupons for 99-cent whole pizzas to its first 99 customers. According to Kristie Bell, director of communications at Kum & Go, customers were lined up outside the store waiting for it to open, and the pizza coupons were gone within an hour.

The fifth-largest privately held and company-operated convenience-store chain in the United States, West Des Moines, Iowa-based Kum & Go has more than 4,700 employees and more than 430 stores in 11 states: Iowa, Arkansas, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. —Despite the Oct. 1 deadline just days away, a survey of 18,000 U.S. adults reported more than half don’t know about EMV or the move to chip-enabled credit cards, said officials with a point-of-sale (POS) company in charge of the study.

Harbortouch, a POS system and merchant-services provider, published the results of a national survey gaging consumer awareness and usage trends of Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) or “chip” enabled credit cards. The survey, conducted in late August, found that 56% of consumers are unaware of what an EMV or chip credit card is.

Lower-income respondents were more likely to lack knowledge of EMV cards than those in higher-income brackets. Nearly 60% of consumers with an income of $25,000-$49,999 were unaware of EMV cards. However, only 26% of the highest-income respondents ($150,000 or more) lacked knowledge of EMV credit cards. The results point to the need for more consumer education on the transition from traditional “swipe” credit cards to EMV or chip cards, which will take place nationwide in less than two weeks, said officials with Harbortouch, Allentown, Pa.

As of Oct. 1, 2015, payment networks including Visa, Foster City, Calif., and MasterCard, Purchase, N.Y., will shift responsibility for credit-card fraud onto U.S. merchants who do not adopt EMV cards as their primary method of credit-card payment. For c-store retailers, that deadline will apply to in-store readers, with similar requirements coming to in-pump readers in October 2017.

These smart chips embedded within EMV cards are intended to make credit-card fraud less likely. While common in Europe and other regions of the world, the technology standard is just now being adopted in the United States.

The recent Harbortouch survey also investigated a variety of EMV usage trends among U.S. consumers who did report awareness of the chip cards. Highlights include:

*Card replacements slow to arrive. The majority (53.6%) of consumers said they had not yet received replacement EMV or chip cards from all of their credit-card providers.

*Rural residents lead urban dwellers in EMV-card usage, with 76%of respondents living in rural areas reporting they use chip cards when paying for goods. That number compares to only 64% of respondents living in urban areas.

*Generation Z reports lowest EMV usage but ranks highest in mobile-payment adoption. Respondents between the ages of 18 and 24, also known as “Gen Z,” were the least likely to use EMV credit cards (20.5%). However, Gen Z reported the highest usage of mobile payments (42.1%).

*Only half of consumers believe chip cards will make them more secure. While payment networks believe in the security benefits of EMV, only 50.8% of consumers feel the technology will make them more secure. More men (58.8%) than women (41.4%) feel chip-enabled cards will make them more secure.

“The findings of this study indicate that EMV could pose serious challenges for credit-card companies and retailers as the busy holiday season approaches,” said Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Harbortouch. “Varying rates of adoption and opinions on the benefits of chip cards means more can be done by all parties to ensure a smooth transition on October 1 and beyond.”

Harbortouch is a supplier of POS systems, serving thousands of businesses across the nation.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. —Despite the Oct. 1 deadline just days away, a survey of 18,000 U.S. adults reported more than half don’t know about EMV or the move to chip-enabled credit cards, said officials with a point-of-sale (POS) company in charge of the study.

Harbortouch, a POS system and merchant-services provider, published the results of a national survey gaging consumer awareness and usage trends of Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) or “chip” enabled credit cards. The survey, conducted in late August, found that 56% of consumers are unaware of what an EMV or chip credit card is.

Lower-income respondents were more likely to lack knowledge of EMV cards than those in higher-income brackets. Nearly 60% of consumers with an income of $25,000-$49,999 were unaware of EMV cards. However, only 26% of the highest-income respondents ($150,000 or more) lacked knowledge of EMV credit cards. The results point to the need for more consumer education on the transition from traditional “swipe” credit cards to EMV or chip cards, which will take place nationwide in less than two weeks, said officials with Harbortouch, Allentown, Pa.

As of Oct. 1, 2015, payment networks including Visa, Foster City, Calif., and MasterCard, Purchase, N.Y., will shift responsibility for credit-card fraud onto U.S. merchants who do not adopt EMV cards as their primary method of credit-card payment. For c-store retailers, that deadline will apply to in-store readers, with similar requirements coming to in-pump readers in October 2017.

These smart chips embedded within EMV cards are intended to make credit-card fraud less likely. While common in Europe and other regions of the world, the technology standard is just now being adopted in the United States.

The recent Harbortouch survey also investigated a variety of EMV usage trends among U.S. consumers who did report awareness of the chip cards. Highlights include:

*Card replacements slow to arrive. The majority (53.6%) of consumers said they had not yet received replacement EMV or chip cards from all of their credit-card providers.

*Rural residents lead urban dwellers in EMV-card usage, with 76%of respondents living in rural areas reporting they use chip cards when paying for goods. That number compares to only 64% of respondents living in urban areas.

*Generation Z reports lowest EMV usage but ranks highest in mobile-payment adoption. Respondents between the ages of 18 and 24, also known as “Gen Z,” were the least likely to use EMV credit cards (20.5%). However, Gen Z reported the highest usage of mobile payments (42.1%).

*Only half of consumers believe chip cards will make them more secure. While payment networks believe in the security benefits of EMV, only 50.8% of consumers feel the technology will make them more secure. More men (58.8%) than women (41.4%) feel chip-enabled cards will make them more secure.

“The findings of this study indicate that EMV could pose serious challenges for credit-card companies and retailers as the busy holiday season approaches,” said Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Harbortouch. “Varying rates of adoption and opinions on the benefits of chip cards means more can be done by all parties to ensure a smooth transition on October 1 and beyond.”

Harbortouch is a supplier of POS systems, serving thousands of businesses across the nation.

MIAMI — What started as the “McWhopper proposal,” a peace offering from Burger King to McDonald’s to raise awareness for Peace Day, has developed into a much larger partnership. After several restaurants approached Burger King to unite in honor of Peace Day on Sept. 21, a momentous decision was made and the Peace Day Burger was born.

This culinary mashup of a lifetime will contain of parts of Denny’s Bacon Slamburger, Wayback’s Wayback Classic, Krystal’s Cheese Krystal, Giraffas’ Brutus and Burger King’s Whopper sandwiches.

The Peace Day Burger will be offered for one day only in Atlanta at a pop-up restaurant on 1122 Northside Dr., with the sole objective of raising awareness for Peace Day and the Peace One Day organization. The Peace Day Burger will be available from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. free of charge (1,500 sandwiches are available, first-come, first-served). All participating burger brands will be furthering the cause with a direct monetary donation to Peace One Day.

“Since the beginning, the main objective of this initiative was to raise awareness of Peace Day. We are really proud to be part of the Peace One Day corporate coalition and to see that the awareness of Peace Day in the U.S. is almost five times higher among those who saw this campaign than those who were not aware of it,” said Fernando Machado, senior vice president for Global Brand Management at Burger King Corp., Miami. “We were overwhelmed by the goodwill of our fellow restaurateurs and believe that working with them to create this once-in-a-lifetime burger is a beautiful twist of fate.”

After Burger King initially expressed interest in working with McDonald’s to create the “McWhopper,” McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook took to Facebook to say, “We love the intention but think our two brands could do something bigger to make a difference.”

“As far as McDonald’s goes, any activity they undertake, whether in partnership with Burger King or on their own, would be incredible, as it will raise further awareness for Peace Day,” Machado said. “And inadvertently, the McWhopper has 100% become a reality for some. The public wholeheartedly embraced the campaign and thousands of DIY McWhoppers have been created, reviewed and shared on social media.”

Since launching the McWhopper campaign, Peace One Day has seen an unprecedented upswing in people talking about Peace Day, in traditional and social media. Burger King and its new allies are confident they will increase this exposure even further with the Peace Day Burger.

Peace Day is a day of ceasefire and nonviolence unanimously adopted by all UN member states, following a successful campaign by the nonprofit organization Peace One Day. “Our short-term goal is to expose 3 billion people to Peace Day by 2016. It’s a big target but it’s very possible, particularly with the support of the corporate sector. They have the resources and ability to raise awareness on a massive scale. That awareness creates action, and that action saves lives,” said Jeremy Gilley, founder of Peace One Day.

Burger King is now part of Oakville, Ontario-based Restaurant Brands International, created by the private-equity group 3G Capital when it merged the burger chain with Tim Hortons, a Canadian doughnut and coffee chain.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Stripes Convenience Stores recently donated $183,930 to the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio Foundation. The funds were raised this spring during Stripes’ 11th annual Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals paper pin-up fundraising campaign.

Stripes employees asked their guests to “Put Their Money Where The Miracles Are” and purchase a $1 Miracle Balloon icon to raise funds for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMNH). Each customer donation was rewarded with a free 12-ounce Slush Monkey drink and a buy-one-get-one free Smokin’ Barrel snack promotion.

The company surpassed its goal of raising more than $1.4 million for CMNH, receiving $1,422,630 in donations from more than 675 store locations, which will directly benefit 13 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals throughout Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

In total, Stripes has raised more than $6 million for CMNH through its partnership.

“What an honor it is to present more than $1.4 million to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals,” Eduardo Pereda, Stripes vice president of marketing, said at a check presentation event to representatives from CMNH. “Together, with the generosity of our customers and the support of our passionate team members, we surpassed our highest expectations.”

As with all CMNH fundraisers, dollars generated from Stripes in-store campaigns stay local to benefit sick and injured kids in the communities where the funds were raised. These funds help create miracles by funding medical care, research and education that saves and improves the lives of millions of children treated at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals each year.

The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio serves children and youth throughout Texas and is part of the CMNH network that serves children in Stripes operating markets—Cuero, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo, Karnes City, New Braunfels, San Antonio and Victoria. Since 2000, Stripes Convenience Stores has donated almost $1 million to the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio Foundation. The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio has utilized funds to purchase state-of-the-art equipment in its emergency rooms and for much needed programs and equipment throughout the hospital.

“We are so thankful for Stripes Convenience Stores for another record-breaking fundraising year,” said John Lauck, president and CEO of CMNH.

The Corpus Christi, Texas-based company operates more than 675 convenience stores in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, more than 630 under the Stripes banner and 42 under the Sac-N-Pac banner. Restaurant service is available in more than 440 of its stores, primarily under the proprietary Laredo Taco Co. brand.

PHILADELPHIA — Pope Francis has a tasty sandwich awaiting him when he visits Philadelphia later this month!

During the grand-opening celebration of Wawa’s new Philadephia flagship store on Friday, Philly Mayor Michael Nutter offered to buy the pope a free Wawa hoagie.

I’m pleased to announce that we expect to serve Pope Francis a Wawa hoagie of his choice,” Nutter said, according to a Philadelphia Enquirer report.

Wawa Inc. opened the flagship Philadelphia convenience store two months ahead of schedule to have it ready for Pope Francis’ visit to the City of Brotherly Love.

“Today’s the day, Philly customers,” Wawa posted on its FaceBook page Friday. “Our new store on the Avenue of the Arts is officially open, and we’re celebrating in a BIG way. See you there!”

With the doors opening to the public at 8 a.m., more than 50 customers lined the street of the new Center City store, according to the newspaper report. The store will serve the tremendous number of customers and visitors who will be in Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families and the historic visit of Pope Francis, according to the c-store chain. The pope is scheduled to be in Philadelphia Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26 and 27.

The Center City Philadelphia store offers Wawa’s hometown customers its most progressive store design prototype to date, featuring more than 4,000 square feet of space and one-of-kind features not yet available in any other Wawa store. Highlights of the new store include:

• Large corner entrance with bronze canopy
• In-door bar seating along the windows, the first Wawa store to feature this option
• Upscale cabinetry, counter tops and lighting
• Wawa’s newest product offerings
• Design features such as floor-to-ceiling glass
• Special digital signs developed to support and showcase Wawa’s foodservice offer and commitment to the community

“During this significant occasion when the spotlight is on Philadelphia as the World Meeting of Families convenes and culminates with the visit of Pope Francis, we couldn’t be more excited to open our flagship Philadelphia store,” said Chris Gheysens, Wawa president and CEO. ”It truly is a fitting symbol of our commitment to serving our friends and neighbors and to continuing to invest in our hometown.

“At Wawa, we pride ourselves on being there for our communities around the clock and when they need us most, so we are thrilled to not only provide our hometown customers with our most unique store design and experience, but to open and be ready to serve the thousands of people who will be in Philadelphia during this historic time in our city’s history.”

DAYTON, Ohio — United Dairy Farmers has closed and sold five Dayton, Ohio-area convenience stores, according to a report in the Dayton Daily News.

“These store closures resulted from our regular process of strategic real-estate review,” UDF spokeswoman Tamara Krueger told the newspaper. All affected employees “were offered continued employment at UDF,” Krueger said.

The five stores tentatively are operating under the name Dayton Dairy Farm, or DDF, a spokesman for the new ownership said.

The sale was finalized is August, and the stores reopened under new ownership within two days.

The transition affected two stores in Kettering, Ohio, and three sites in Dayton.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati-based United Dairy Farmers said it plans to build two new convenience stores/fuel stations in Ohio’s Washington Township, one on the township’s northern edge and one on its southern edge, according to the newspaper. Timing for the construction was not known.