First Convenience Store To Sell Beer

On May 21, the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board approved the sale of beer and Arkansas wine at Bowen Arrow Express in Tontitown.

That makes Bowen Arrow the first convenience store in Washington County to be approved by ABC to sell beer and wine. The two largest cities in the county — Fayetteville and Springdale — have ordinances preventing the sale of alcoholic beverages in grocery and convenience stores.

Don Bennett, staff attorney for ABC, said this doesn’t mean there will be a “land rush” of approvals for other convenience stores in the county.

“Each application is considered on its own merit,” he said. “I wouldn’t guarantee there’s going to be a blanket approval of all applications up there.”

Ronnie and Benita Bowen built the convenience store two years ago. Ronnie Bowen said it will probably be late June before the store begins selling beer and wine. First, he said, the couple plans to install a Veriphone system that will allow them to easily check the age of shoppers who are trying to buy alcoholic beverages or tobacco.

Ronnie Bowen said the store won’t sell single beers or quarts.

Shake’s Opens Six New Stores

Fayetteville-based Shake’s Frozen Custard recently opened new stores in Oklahoma City, Columbia, Tenn., San Antonio, Texas, and three cities in Missouri — St. Louis, St. Peters and Nixa.

Corey Osborne, the company’s CEO, said Shake’s currently has 39 franchise locations and two company-owned stores open. Nine franchise units are under construction. Within the next few weeks, the company plans to open stores in Topeka, Kan., Cummings, Ga., and three Texas cities — Abilene, League City and Longview. Another 55 are under development, for a grand total of 103.

“Our goal for 2003 is to have a total of 50 stores open,” Osborne said. “We are on track to meet that goal.”

Shake’s long-range goal is to be operating 600 profitable units by the end of 2007.

Shake’s has stores in nine states: Arkansas, Alabama, Kansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The Arkansas locations include Rogers, Springdale, Fayetteville, Russellville, Conway, Little Rock, North Little Rock, Jacksonville, Benton, Hot Springs and Jonesboro. A Shake’s is also under construction in Fort Smith.

Shake’s is spending about $825,000 to build a 1,200-SF new restaurant and 6,000-SF operations center at 2785 N. College Ave. in Fayetteville.

The operations center will serve as corporate headquarters and as a training center for employees. The company’s main office is currently in Fayetteville’s Three Sisters building on Dickson Street.

Wal-Mart is No. 1 Grocer in Nation

The world’s largest retailer is now also the world’s largest grocer.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. began selling food in 1988 and became the nation’s top food seller last year, with $54 billion in grocery sales. Wal-Mart is followed in the list of grocers by Kroger Co. with $51.8 billion in sales, Albertsons Inc. with $35.6 billion and Safeway Inc. with $32.4 billion.

Wal-Mart sells groceries in at least 1,258 supercenters, 180,000-square-foot grocery/discount-store combinations, and in 49 small Neighborhood Markets. Those stores are located primarily in the South and Southwest.

If Wal-Mart’s Supercenters continue to expand at their current pace, within this decade, more than three-quarters of the nation’s Krogers and Albertsons stores and more than half the Safeway outlets could be within 10 miles of a Wal-Mart Supercenter, according to Trade Dimensions, a market-data provider.

Wal-Mart is already making an impact on the competition, according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. Shoppers in competitive markets are seeing prices fall as Wal-Mart forces rivals to match its everyday low prices. To compete, the other companies are improving their inventory-tracking systems, doubling or tripling discount coupons and boosting customer loyalty with discount-card plans.

Consolidation among grocers since the late 1980s gave Wal-Mart an incentive to break into the sector, The Wall Street Journal reported. With less competition, the price of food sold at supermarkets nationwide grew at twice the rate of the producer-price index from 1991 through 2001, fattening profits. That meant Wal-Mart could come in, cut prices 10 percent to 15 percent and still make a profit.