Retailers Learn From the Past

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—In every industry, it’s important to learn from the past to prepare for the future. On this week’s episode of Convenience Matters, “Remember This? Fueling Through the Years,” Keith Reid, editor of Fuels Market News, takes listeners into the history of fueling to give insights into the future of this vibrant industry.

The year 2020 has brought about a reshaping of how consumers view the fuel and retail industry in today’s tough economy. But the industry has weathered storms like this in the past—and managed to come through stronger. “There are certainly strong parallels between the recession of 2008 and the Great Depression,” Reid said. “Assumption in 2008 that the downstream petroleum industry and the retail petroleum industry and the convenience side of things was more recession-resistant. … and that’s what you found in the industry in the 1930s.”

The 1920s began the industry shift from a kerosene industry into a gasoline industry. “The thirties is where you started to see these retail concepts mature,” Reid said. “As early as 1930, it was being acknowledged [by experts] that the industry really was a merchandising industry. … There came this realization that you’ve got this piece of real estate—now what can you do with it?”

The first profit center was lubes because cars in that era needed a lot of lubrication on the maintenance side. The move to tires, batteries and accessories began in the 1930s. “You also saw everything you take for granted in the convenience side—it may not have taken off until the seventies, but you saw some really aggressive explorations in those areas,” Reid said.

Each week a new Convenience Matters episode is released. With more than 200 episodes to choose from, the podcast can be heard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play and other podcast apps and YouTube and at www.conveniencematters.com. Episodes have been downloaded more than 130,000 times by listeners around the world.