June is a time for new beginnings and fresh starts—high school graduations, weddings, vacations. This year, instead, June brings the lifting of stay-at-home orders and reopening of businesses forced to shut their doors to the public as the pandemic swept across the U.S. Of course, the convenience and fuel retailing industry never closed. I suspect retailers and their teams at times may feel like the one kid who stayed inside for study hall while their classmates enjoyed recess. Your sacrifices haven’t gone unnoticed.

Kevin Smartt, CEO and president of Kwik Chek and NACS treasurer, in May represented NACS and our industry at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to explore legislation to protect essential businesses from unfounded lawsuits alleging that someone contracted COVID-19 on their premises, given how impossible it is to uncover the source of a particular infection in a community. “My businesses, like other essential businesses, have strived to keep our doors open and provide customers and first responders with essential items like food and fuel,” Smartt told the committee. “Staying open has not been easy. We’ve had to overcome numerous obstacles to do so, including significant supply chain deficiencies.” Smartt shared the myriad ways Kwik Chek is diligently working to protect the health and safety of employees and customers. “We’ve tried to do the right thing. We chose people first over economics,” he said. Kwik Chek isn’t alone. Industry-wide, retailers of all sizes have stood in the gap to put people first.

Our industry entered 2020 on solid footing, coming off a year of record pretax profits driven by strong fuel margins and in-store merchandise and foodservice sales but facing ever-climbing direct store operating expenses and employee turnover, despite rising wages. The pandemic is further pressuring costs—one of the reasons why examining performance metrics is more important than ever.

Your sacrifices haven’t gone unnoticed.

This month’s magazine offers a taste of the 2020 NACS State of the Industry Summit Virtual Experience. When meeting in-person in Chicago became untenable, NACS created an all-new virtual experience, and our speakers graciously flexed with us to offer insights into ways to manage the crisis and look ahead to map out what a “new normal” might look like. If you haven’t signed up to experience the learnings and thought leadership yet, there’s still time. The sessions are available on demand until September 1 at www.convenience.org/SOISummit.

Maintaining clean stores and forecourts has been top of mind for all retailers, so we’ve tapped experts to share their advice on how to approach the job. As one supplier told us: “In a pre-COVID world, a store maybe spent one to two hours a week cleaning their forecourt. Now, some are doing it hourly, 10 minutes per hour, maybe three hours per day.”

So how do you manage amid the chaos? Corinne Hancock, a chaos coach, shared some advice at the NACS HR Forum. Remember your mission, assess and evaluate the situation and get creative when obvious solutions are no longer on the table. “Chaos makes you stronger,” she said. “Looking back, you are the proudest of the results after the chaos.”

Be well, my friends.