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Phil Settle obsesses over the perfect order.
Not a utopian society, but what managers fill out to bring in the right mix of goods, brands and price points to turn notoriously thin c-store margins into ever-increasing, year-over-year profit.
For retailers such as Settle, the scan-in, scan-out daydream typically involves zero out-of-stocks; high-turn, high-margin sales; and an uncluttered, relevant customer experience.
While perfection for most is a journey, Settle, director of marketing for the 172-store Flash Foods Inc., Waycross, Ga., is as close as he’s ever been, and light-years ahead of most.
