Don’t underestimate the power of regional convenience-store brands. Both Powell, Tennessee-based Weigel’s and La Crosse, Wisconsin-based Kwik Trip use this to their advantage when it comes to their retail media networks (RMNs).
Stu Heifetz, senior manager of retail media sales at Kwik Trip, and Nick Triantafellou, director of merchandising and marketing at Weigel’s, spoke Wednesday at CSP’s Retail Media Network Forum with NexChapter Vice President of Digital Strategy Mike Templeton, who moderated the conversation. The three-day forum, hosted by CSP and Des Moines, Iowa-based c-store consulting firm NexChapter, took place May 4-6 in Chicago.
- Kwik Trip is No. 11on CSP’s 2026 Top 40 update to the 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Weigel’s is No. 84 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking. Watch for the full 2026 Top 202 ranking in June.
Weigel’s, which has nearly 90 stores in east Tennessee, announced the launch of its own retail media network, Milk Crate Retail Media, in October. Heifetz said while there’s always been a little bit of a retail media play at Kwik Trip, about two and a half years ago, they brought all the sales and content in-house. Kwik Trip has 919 stores, some also under the Kwik Star brand, in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Templeton asked the pair what they’ve heard from some of the advertisers, like consumer-packaged goods (CPG) brands, who the c-store chains work with…