TOLEDO, Ohio -- The gas pumps were back on at most Barney's Convenience Marts in the Toledo, Ohio, area Tuesday morning, but there are continuing signs of the financial problems that have caused headaches for customers since early September. Nine of the chain's 35 stations, which sell BP fuel, were either closed Tuesday morning or their phones went unanswered. Two others are in the process of being converted to Circle K stations.

Fourteen Barney's stations either ran out of gas or were close to running out Monday as the owners tried to work through unspecified financial problems. But most had gas on Tuesday. The problems first came to light in early September when many Barney's stations stopped accepting credit-card payments.

PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- C-store retailers need to embrace their imaginative side, in addition to their functional side, according to Kevin Kelley, co-founder and principal of perception design firm Shook Kelley. "The convenience store operations do a good job in efficiency, they do a tremendously good job in operation and a really good job in function—but where they don't score so well is imagination," he told about 400 attendees at CSP's 2009 Outlook Leadership conference.

LOS ANGELES -- Whole Foods Market Inc. is considering banning the use of personal checks at its grocery stores and this month stopped accepting checks at two stores in Los Angeles County and one in Arizona as a test. Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Inc., the California division of British retailer Tesco, already will not take personal checks at any of the 70 stores it operates in California.