Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 12, 1993 TAG: 9305120054
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But does it mean supermarket prices at the convenience store?
No, said Karen Raskopf, spokeswoman for Dallas-based Southland Co., which operates 7-Eleven stores.
"We're not a supermarket. Customers don't expect to find rock-bottom prices at 7-Eleven. We know they've got a choice of shopping at a supermarket," she said.
Not everything at the convenience stores is cheaper, either. But a gallon of milk that sold for $2.79 is now $2.49, or 11 percent less, for instance.
Raskopf said 7-Eleven's price cutting is a test being conducted only in the 23-store Roanoke market. There have been similar tests in other markets.
She described this as a "dynamic market," which can be interpreted to mean hotly competitive.
Raskopf said this also was a good market in which to run a test, because all the stores in the Lynchburg to New River Valley territory are corporate-owned. Also, advertising about the price-cutting won't spill into other 7-Eleven markets.
In late April, Southland announced a $200 million remodeling program for 1,300 of its 10,000 stores and said all its stores would get a new look by 1996.
The Western Virginia stores aren't part of this year's remodeling, and the price-cut test could be determining their future. Southland last year lost $131.4 million and has had only one profitable year since 1988.
Raskopf said the company has looked for many ways to cut costs. All of the buying now is done out of Dallas. It has closed distribution centers and contracted with another company to distribute its merchandise.
"And we've gone on an aggressive program across the U.S. to introduce new items in our stores," she said.
Convenience stores, like other retailers, have learned that more is not better anymore.
"It used to be that one of our ways to increase profits and sales was to build more locations, and that's not the way we are going to succeed in today's environment," Raskopf said.
Actually, the business climate is a good one for innovation, and that fits Meals in Motion, a delivery business that will cart meals from five Roanoke Valley restaurants to your home or office for a $3-per-restaurant service fee.
Shawn Anderton, a graduate of Patrick Henry High School and Domino's Pizza management, opened Meals in Motion two weeks ago. His territory is limited to the southwest side of the Roanoke Valley. But give him time, he said.
Anderton has three delivery people who promise service in 45 minutes and dress in tuxedos to carry it out. Their vehicles are equipped with containers to keep the food warm, he said.
So far, marketing has been limited to visits to hospital staffs and businesses and distribution of flyers that contain menus from the participating restaurants - Charley's, Frank's Pizza & Subs, Fiji Island, Fiesta Cantina and Western Sizzlin'.
Anderton said the staff delivered seven meals the first day. As business grows, he'll expand into the rest of the city, he said.
Twenty-four-hour Wal-Marts?
Since last year, the Arkansas company has been keeping some of its stores open around the clock - except for a few Sunday a.m. hours - in areas that it thinks have large night work forces. In Virginia, stores in Colonial Heights, Winchester and Glen Allen are open. North Carolina also has several, the nearest in Winston-Salem, said a spokeswoman.
The little dots on the lids of some soft drink cans that look like Braille messages are Braille. They're coding for the amount of refund due if the can is redeemed.
Some states are encouraging recycling through redemption-fee programs, and drinks sold in those states generally carry the Braille code, said Gary Hemphill, spokesman for Pepsico's soft drink division in Somers, N.Y..
"Bottlers aren't required by law to put anything on the top of cans, but in deposit states they put the amount of refund and the state it applies to," he said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***