Desk · September 8, 2026
Regular $4.071 and diesel $5.599 still pay the facing
EIA week ended Aug. 31. Regular down 1.4 cents, diesel down 5.3. A snack buyer does not post a pump. The trip still decides the ring.
Staff desk
Original, bylined coverage of snack, beverage, CPG, and convenience retail.
Desk · September 8, 2026
Casey’s said whole pizzas led a 5.5% inside same-store quarter
Darren Rebelez, on the record, June 9: prepared food and non-alcoholic beverages. The chain closed July at 2,959 doors.
Desk · September 3, 2026
Editor’s note: Four files from the 2026 NACS Show
Las Vegas, Oct. 6–9. Impulse, cooler, private label, and the kitchen — assigned now, dated when they land.
Desk · August 11, 2026
A grocery share leader can still lose the four-foot set
Convenience snacks are an interrupt. Pack size, price, and heat beat a center-store ranking.
Desk · July 14, 2026
Energy, water, and fountain are not one war
A c-store cooler is a door business. The grocery 12-pack is a pallet. Margin lives in the set that paid for the rebate.
Desk · June 9, 2026
Store brand in a c-store is a control tool, not a CPG company
Ice, water, a simple chip, a bun. The programs that work admit they cannot own grocery’s scale.
Desk · May 20, 2026
The DSD single can sell through before the bulletin arrives
OpenFDA does not sort by channel. A high-turn cooler SKU is already gone when the grocery case is still full.
Desk · April 8, 2026
Energy is still a door slot, not a lifestyle campaign
The customer is often already on the lot. The fight is the 16-ounce facing, the rebate, and who gets demoted.
Desk · March 4, 2026
Impulse and destination are different purchase orders
A candy clip strip and an eight-foot cookie run share a warehouse slot. They do not share a meeting.
Desk · January 27, 2026
Food-at-home is the comparison set for the bag next to the pump
CPI food-at-home is not only a grocery print. Food-away-from-home is the roller-grill companion. Using one series for both writes a false margin story.