Editorial

When it comes to snack sales across America, convenience is the star as time-starved shoppers look for quick, portable food to help them keep moving throughout the day.

We are fresh from another successful AWMA Show, this one in Orlando, FL, where some 1,500 attendees, including 225 exhibitors, attended to discuss business, learn about ways to improve their businesses, and make plans for future success.

Overall, I thought the Show was outstanding, with plenty of opportunities for networking and business building, and for taking advantage of an insightful program of educational seminars and featured speakers.

In 2013 I know we’ll all work hard within our own businesses and for the association, but as we do, we’ll have the opportunity to enjoy the many activities and programs through AWMA that bring us together. 

A Cincinnati-based U.S. appeals court ruled March 19 that requiring graphic cigarette warning labels does not violate the free speech guarantees of the U.S. Constitution.

The labeling, required by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act, was challenged by tobacco manufacturing companies, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co., as well as other tobacco industry interests.

Salty snacks are still strong sellers for us,” says Paula Glidewell, vice president for Fort Smith, AR-based Glidewell Distributing Co. Inc. Americans are snacking more than ever and c-stores are positioned to capture those sales if they have the right mix of products for hungry shoppers.

“Snacks are an important part of the c-store format and where consumers go to look for them,” says Christopher Clark, vice president, Snack Food Association based in Arlington, VA. “Despite a strong presence already existing in c-stores, there are still a lot of opportunities for growth.”

AWMA’s inaugural Hall of Fame Awards were presented at Feb. 16 at the opening Super Session of the 2012 AWMA Show in Las Vegas to Steve Shing, corporate vice president, sales and marketing, at GSC Enterprises, Sulphur Springs, TX, and Jim Colucci, who recently retired after 37 years in the industry, 34 of them with Altadis and its predecessor, Consolidated Cigars.

Both Shing and Colucci were selected by AWMA’s new Past Chairman’s Advisory Council to receive the honor because of their lifetime of service to AWMA and the convenience distribution industry.

Presented the chairman’s gavel during the opening Super Session, by outgoing chairman Keith Channing, managing partner, Pine State Trading, Augusta, ME, was 2012 AWMA chairman Chad Gummer, president and COO, Gummer Wholesale Inc., Heath, OH. He pledged to work hard to expand AWMA’s membership and relationships with state industry associations, broaden the annual Day on the Hill lobbying event, and improve the organization’s communications tools.

By Bob Gatty

There is a boom in western North Dakota caused by the Bakken oil field, where more than 200 drilling rigs, more than anywhere in the U.S. except Texas, are busy extracting crude from the earth.