Gen Z, Millennials and Convenience Retailing

LONDON – While veterans of the convenience retailing industry headlined most of the sessions at the NACS Convenience Summit Europe last week, a panel of millennials and Gen Zers who work in the industry offered fresh insights into their generations’ passions and goals.

Lecyca Curiel, 20, moderated the four-person panel, “Why Are You Investing Yourself in Convenience Retailing?” on day two of the summit. An expert on Gen Z, Curiel works as a keynote speaker and researcher for WHETSON/strategic foresight. Curiel started the discussion by describing some characteristics of each cohort.

Millennials:

• Tech savvy
• Job achievement seekers
• Feedback oriented
• Job hoppers

Gen Z:

• Multitaskers
• Entrepreneurs
• Digital natives

Tania Jacobsen, operations director, Reitan Convenience Denmark A/S, which was named International Convenience Retailer of the Year later that evening, shared why her job and the industry is so compelling to her. “You get to learn about statistics, customer behavior,” said Jacobsen, who has worked in the industry for a decade. “Everything goes fast. No two days are alike. If you like your working life to be calm, stable and predictable, this is not the business to be in.”

Keith Crawford, retail operations adviser at SPAR Ireland, said he is passionate about working with people. His father was in the convenience and fuel retailing industry, and Crawford has found it a natural fit for him, as well.

The panelists said Gen Z strives for career progression and development—they want to keep learning new things. “Life experiences are something we place a lot of priority on,” Crawford said. Tap into what Gen Z is thinking, he advised. SPAR regularly brings in marketing panels of millennials and Gen Z in its stores.

Rosario Otones Vega, who works in franchise development for new retail concepts at global energy company Cepsa, has been in the industry for three years. She views her generation as team-oriented, with no patience for traditional vertical hierarchies, and sees her more experienced colleagues as reluctant to challenge the status quo.

Sebastian Becker, head of wholesale and board member of Migrolino AG, said he is passionate about “developing things from scratch.” His advice to retail leaders who want to attract and keep younger workers? “One part of this is taking away hierarchies,” he said. “Focus on hiring the best person for the job at hand, not who brings the most years of experience.”

All agreed that it’s important for the companies they work for to engage in socially aware, environmentally conscious issues, such as sustainability and reducing use of plastic packaging, for instance.

Crawford of SPAR challenged the room to change how younger people perceive the industry. One way to do that is through “apprenticeship programs where people can work in a store and go to school. It’s a kind of learn-and-earn type of approach. I think that’s really important as well for the retailers in the room.”

What are some blind spots for the next generation of workers?

“What many of them are missing is a [customer] service point. I think the older generation might be better at providing service,” Jacobsen offered. She expanded on the point: “I recently saw an analysis that 52% of all of us think that time is more important than money. What we provide in the convenience industry is service, making sure we provide what’s easier for our customers. In the sense that every decision we make … is there anything I can do to make this product or solution any more convenient for our customers? Today you can buy virtually everything you want on the internet, so once you get off the couch and go to a real store, you expect so much more.”