Placement at the Pump: How Gas Stations Promote Impulse Buys

Everyone knows that retail stores are strategic in the ways they market their products to consumers, whether that be through the "last minute necessities" in the checkout line (like vaseline/chapstick, phone chargers, or batteries) or the end displays with promotional products. Like retail stores, gas stations also have unique strategies to promote those last-minute purchases at the checkout counter, and they have a lot to do with placement.

1) Tobacco Product Placement
If you asked a random person to recall three items typically sold at the counter of a gas station convenience store, chances are that tobacco products would be included in that list. The reason that is has to do with the tobacco companies partnering with gas stations and paying large sums of money for their products tone placed in plain sight. What's even more disturbing, though, is where these products are placed. Tobacco companies typically target convenience stores/gas stations close to schools and parks/playgrounds to attract teenagers/children. In fact, the tobacco industry believes "today's teenager is tomorrow's potential regular customer".

2) Candy/Junk Food
The second item almost always guaranteed to be at the checkout counter of a convenience story is candy. There are two typical places at the counter where it's located: lower to the ground (the perfect height for kids craving sugar) and directly next to the card-reader to entice last-minute impulse buys.
Added to the fact that most people only go to a convenience store for a couple items and could probably afford that last-minute item, this is the perfect opportunity for additional sales.



Sources:
1. DEADLY ALLIANCE: How Big Tobacco and Convenience Stores Partner to Market Tobacco Products and Fight Life-Saving Policies