In this episode of “At Your Convenience,” CSP Editor Chuck Ulie talks with Liza Salaria, senior vice president – category management and foodservice, at Chicago-based W. Capra, about crafting promotions with purpose.

The two spoke at CSP’s Foodservice Forum on June 11 in Schaumburg, Illinois.

On the podcast, Salaria offers suggestions on which strategy or strategies to use when promoting an item.

“If you find yourself in a situation where maybe transactions are soft and trips are down in your store, you may elect to run a heavily discounted product, like maybe fountain, with the sole purpose to drive incremental trips into the store,” Salaria said.

In addition, if customers are visiting a c-store less often, “We need to get them to buy more when they are in our stores, and that's called increasing the basket size, and there are certain promotions we do to particularly accomplish that,” she said.

Retailers also need to get creative on how to develop new daypart missions, Salaria said.

“How do we create new reasons for customers to break in the middle of their day, get away from their computers and come to the local convenience store for maybe something unique, like maybe it’s a smoothie, or it’s a hot cookie, or some new reason?” she asked.

“At Your Convenience” brings industry experts and analysts together with CSP editors to discuss the latest in c-store news and trends. From mergers and acquisitions to foodservice and technology, the podcast delivers the story straight to listeners in short-format episodes, perfect for the morning commute or a quick break at the office.