Holiday and big-event prep for c-stores

On this page

1. Build a calendar of busy days
2. Staffing
3. Stock
4. Cash
5. Lottery
6. Rules that can change on holidays
7. After the rush

Most busy days can be seen coming. Holidays sit on the calendar, the big game is announced months ahead, and a jackpot builds for weeks before it makes the news. Even storms usually give a few days’ warning. The stores that handle these days well start planning a few weeks out, while there’s still time to order stock, line up staff and get change from the bank.

Build a calendar of busy days

At the start of each quarter, list the days that won’t look like a normal day:

• Holiday weekends, plus the day before each holiday
• Big sports days and local events: home games, festivals, races, the county fair
• Paydays and benefit days in your area. SNAP benefits go out on a schedule set by each state, so check yours.
• Big lottery jackpots, which you’ll see building
• School breaks and the first days back
• Storm season, if your area has one

For each date, pull last year’s sales for the same day if you have them. The departments that jumped last year will probably jump again.

Staffing

• Post the schedule early. Collect time-off requests before you build it, and lock it a couple of weeks out.
• Put your strongest clerks on the peak hours. A new hire alone on a holiday rush is hard on everyone, customers included.
• Add a second person for the rush. One rings while the other stocks, bags ice, cleans and covers breaks.
• Keep a backup list of people who can pick up a shift on short notice.
• Move shift changes away from the peak. Counting a drawer while the line is out the door leads to mistakes.
• Brief the crew before the day: holiday hours, specials, the jackpot amount, where the extra stock is and who to call.

On pay: federal law doesn’t require extra pay for working a holiday, but overtime rules still apply, and some states have their own rules. Check with your state labor department, and settle your holiday pay policy before the schedule goes up.

Stock

Start with last year’s numbers for the same days, and talk to your vendors early.

• Confirm delivery days. Delivery schedules can shift around holidays. Ask each rep for their holiday schedule and order earlier than usual.
• Order the holiday sellers. Think about what the day calls for: ice, water, beer, soda and snacks for summer holidays, charcoal and lighter fluid for cookouts, coffee and road snacks for travel weekends, milk, bread and eggs before a winter holiday.
• Check your cold space. Extra beer and ice need room in the cooler and the freezer. Rearrange before the delivery arrives, not during it.
• Stock up on supplies. Register paper, lottery terminal paper, bags, coffee cups and lids, and restroom and cleaning supplies all go faster on a busy day and are hard to get on a holiday.
• Fuel. Schedule a load before the holiday and confirm your carrier’s holiday schedule. Watch tank levels closely through the weekend.
• Prices and specials. Set holiday prices a few days early, send them to the register and check that the shelf tags match. A price that rings wrong on the busiest day of the month causes a line and an argument.

Cash

• Order change from the bank early. Most banks close on federal holidays, and a long weekend can mean several days without a bank run.
• Plan deposits around the closure. Cash builds up in the safe over a long weekend. Make sure the safe can hold it, and check your armored car schedule if you use one.
• Lower the drawer limit during the rush. Drop more often. A busy counter is a bad place for a full drawer.
• Check large bills. A rushed clerk is an easier target for a fake bill. Train clerks to check fifties and hundreds, and keep a counterfeit pen or light at the register.
• Keep cash for lottery payouts. A big jackpot week brings more ticket sales, and more small winners coming back to cash them.
• Test the card machines before the day, and have a plan if card processing goes down, including a sign ready to put up and clerks who know what to do.

Lottery

• Stock instant tickets. Order enough packs of your best-selling games ahead of the holiday, including seasonal games, and have them in the safe before the rush.
• Activate before the rush. Activating and loading packs while the line waits slows everything down. Fill the dispensers the night before.
• Know the draw cutoff times. Sales for a drawing stop some time before the draw, and the cutoff varies by state and game. Clerks should know it, because a customer who misses it by a minute will blame the counter.
• Paper and play slips. Keep extra lottery terminal paper and play slips at the counter.
• Know your cashing limit. Each state lottery sets the largest prize a store can pay out. Make sure clerks know your limit and where to send customers with bigger winners.
• Count every shift, even on busy days. Rushed shift changes are when lottery counts go wrong, and a skipped count makes it impossible to tell later which shift a missing ticket belongs to.
• Check your settlement date. If your lottery pulls money from your bank account on a set day, find out whether a holiday moves it, and keep enough in the account.

Rules that can change on holidays

• Alcohol sales hours. Some states and counties restrict beer and wine sales on certain days or holidays. Check with your state alcohol agency and your county.
• Emergency pricing. When a state of emergency is declared for a hurricane or a winter storm, many states have price-gouging laws that limit price increases on fuel, water, ice and other essentials. Your state attorney general’s office has the details.

After the rush

Write things down within a day or two, while you still remember.

• What sold out, and when
• What you overstocked
• Whether staffing was right for each part of the day
• Over/short, voids and refunds on the busy days, which deserve a closer look than usual
• What you’d change next year

Keep the notes with the date on your calendar. Next year, the planning starts from real numbers instead of memory.

On a busy weekend, the Advantage phone app shows the register’s sales through the day on Live POS and sends alerts for low fuel and fuel deliveries, so you can keep an eye on the store when you can’t be behind the counter.