Blain’s Farm & Fleet Partners with CB4 to Uncover Sales Opportunities in Stores
Blain’s Farm & Fleet has grown to dominate the Midwest by maintaining the feel of a humble general store, built to serve hard-working communities, while also carrying over 150,000 items in modernized buildings. Blain’s Farm & Fleet describes themselves as “The Modern General Store,” which might not be where you’d expect to see advanced machine […]
10 Things I Learned Leading a Remote Team Through the Pandemic
Work—what it means, how it happens, and where it takes place—has completely changed due to Covid-19. I don’t need to tell you that as you read this article at home on your iPad, in the quiet moments between Zoom meetings. If managing a team was hard in the past, it’s arguably ten times more difficult […]
Grocery Shopping in the Time of Corona: It’s Awful
Of all the uncertainties the novel coronavirus as brought upon us, one thing is absolute: shopping has changed. Specifically, grocery shopping. In a recent survey we ran, more than 50% of customers across the country said that they were afraid to shop in supermarkets. Give that a minute to really sink in. More than 50% […]
How to Support Your Grocery Staff During Coronavirus
During the 2019 holiday season (and man, does that feel like a long time ago now…) we put together a white paper called, “How to Unlock the Potential of Your Part-Time Workforce.” It was written by Heidi Sax on our editorial staff, and it was my favorite piece that we published last year. It’s an […]
3 Things Traditional Retailers Can Do To Capture Sneakerheads Like Me
When someone says they’re a sneakerhead, what they’re really saying is, ‘If I buy another pair of shoes, I’m going to have to find a bigger apartment.’ It’s no joke to say that sneakerheads spend a lot of money on sneakers, often as many as they can possibly fit into their closet, and then some. […]
Thoughts on GameStop by Someone Who Loved GameStop
I’m 33 and I play videogames. That shouldn’t be a surprise, as the average age of video game players in the United States continues to rise (38% of players are now over 36 years old). What was once looked down on as a dorky pastime has become a nationally-televised sport, sponsored by brands like Coca-Cola, […]
3 Things We Learned Working with Convenience Store Managers
No matter what your role or industry, you probably use some kind of software at work. At CB4, we’re no different. And like you, we’ve used our share of great and terrible software, and learned a lot from it. The most important thing that we learned—great software companies understand their audience and build their software […]
5 Ways CB4 Improves Pharmacy Same-Store Sales
Among retailers, the pharmacy vertical is perhaps the most competitive and ruthless—acquisitions coupled with the emergence of online vendors mean there are fewer total players on the field, and those that still exist are bloated and fall short on customer experience. For example, while Walgreens’ same-store pharmaceutical sales increased by 5.1% in Q2 2018, their […]
3 Examples of Convenience Store Software that Increase Sales
IT teams evaluating convenience store software already have a lot of options to weigh—from POS systems to traffic monitoring systems and more. But these systems come with a high price—a long rollout period and expensive in-store hardware. ROI is easy to promise but difficult to deliver. In this article, we’ll list the three convenience store […]
