GIANT CONVENIENCE STORE CHAIN SELECTS Q COMMS QXPRESS 200 POSA TERMINALS - C-store Replaces Traditional Prepaid Scratch Cards with Efficient Electronic Distribution Technology

Q Comm International, Inc. (Amex: QMM; QMM.WS), a provider of prepaid transaction processing and electronic point-of-sale (POS) distribution solutions, today announced that Giant Retail Stores Group, a strategic business unit of Giant Industries, Inc. (NYSE: GI), has selected its Qxpress 200 point of sale activation (POSA) terminals and transaction processing services for the electronic distribution of prepaid and financial services throughout the Giant convenience store chain.

Orem, UT (PRWEB) August 14, 2003 -- Q Comm International, Inc. (Amex: QMM; QMM.WS), a provider of prepaid transaction processing and electronic point-of-sale (POS) distribution solutions, today announced that Giant Retail Stores Group, a strategic business unit of Giant Industries, Inc. (NYSE: GI), has selected its Qxpress 200 point of sale activation (POSA) terminals and transaction processing services for the electronic distribution of prepaid and financial services throughout the Giant convenience store chain.

To date, Giant has installed Q Comms Qxpress 200 POSA terminals in 130 of its total 132 stores located throughout Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. Giant pays Q Comm a transaction fee on each product sold through the terminals.

Participating Giant stores have replaced traditional scratch cards (also known as hard cards, live inventory cards or vouchers) with Q Comms POSA terminals. These terminals maintain a minimal amount of electronic inventory or create products on demand. Via a standard dedicated or shared phone line, the POSA terminals work in conjunction with Q Comms transaction processing center to electronically distribute prepaid and financial services from a variety of service providers to each retail location.

Q Comm allows retailers to maintain relationships with previous service providers, simply changing the delivery format of those products from physical to electronic. Retailers can also compliment their existing offerings by choosing from a wide variety of prepaid and financial services offered by Q Comm, as Giant has elected to do.

The new POSA e-distribution technology deployed by Giant reduces or entirely eliminates product inventory costs, theft and stock outages of various prepaid and financial services. By switching from live inventory cards to electronic distribution, we are free from the burden of managing and safeguarding live prepaid inventory," says Mike Polo, Director of Marketing for Giant Retail Stores Group.

Plus, now we are always in stock. Previously with live inventory hard cards, managers might forget to reorder cards or cards may have been inaccessible during night shifts, resulting in lost sales. But now, we are in stock 24 hours a day as inventory is electronically replenished automatically and securely."

Polo adds that the greatest benefit of switching from scratch cards to e-distribution has been the ability to increase prepaid category sales in Giants c-stores. The POSA technology allows us to expand the scope of our prepaid and financial offerings throughout all of our convenience stores.

Weve gone from selling just long distance phone cards and Verizon wireless to selling these services plus a full compliment of prepaid wireless recharge cards, prepaid Internet Visa, prepaid MasterCard and a proprietary Giant gift card, which we werent able to do before." The prepaid airtime of wireless carriers currently available at Giant Stores through the new POSA system now include Verizon, AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile, TracFone, Alltel, and Transcard PCS, a Sprint-based program.

Although we are just getting started," says Polo, I was surprised to discover that most of our stores have already sold at least a few of each of the new products. Our sales are ramping up quickly and already our revenues for the prepaid category are three times higher than they were before we implemented the POSA system last month. And weve only just scratched the surface as were still ramping up.

"This is newfound revenue. It doesnt cannibalize or take away from sales of any other c-store category. While prepaid services is not as big as some of our power categories, like Tobacco and Beverages, it is certainly the fastest growing and represents significant potential revenue for c-stores like ours."

Polo believes that the continued nationwide growth of prepaid wireless is largely driving the category but he also credits prepaid bankcards and other new products. Already Giant is considering adding prepaid mobile ringtones and other like services to the POSA platform, which Polo says will boost sales in the prepaid category even further.

Polo advises convenience store operators and other retailers to conduct thorough due diligence before committing to an electronic distribution technology. He highlights system capabilities, customer support, and trust as three of the key criteria by which to choose a POSA partner. Ive spent about three years looking at systems before committing to one. Youve got to carefully consider the systems capability, flexibility and reporting. You dont want to be stuck with a technology thats not going to efficiently handle todays many services, not to mention those on the horizon. Reporting needs to be robust and customizable.

"In our case, Q Comm bent over backwards to work with my IT department in terms of setting up reporting that is functional to us. I can access near real-time reports through the Web to view sales running through Qxpress terminals by individual store and product among other variables, which is a very helpful management tool. Trust is important too. Youve got to feel comfortable with the reliability and competence of the management team and company that youre working with."

Polo adds that it also helped that he has known and had a good working relationship for several years with Q Comms new Director of National Accounts, John Snyder, including when Snyder led the national sales efforts of Sprints and AT&Ts prepaid departments.

With the first month of electronic distribution under his belt, Polo reports being happy with his decision to go with Q Comm. He says that he is pleased with Q Comms performance and the functionality of the Qxpress POSA terminals that are giving a significant boost to his prepaid sales. As a c-store chain, we required some customization and extra coordination with our POSA provider, but in the end, the conversion from live inventory cards to e-distribution is well worth it," concludes Polo.

It is a meaningful endorsement to be chosen by Giant," said Stephen C. Flaherty, president of Q Comm International. They are a quality convenience store chain that invests significant time and consideration into the retail products, services and systems that they deploy. We are proud to be part of the many premier services offered by Giant and look forward to working with them as their prepaid services transaction processor."

ABOUT GIANT:
Giant Industries, Inc., headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a refiner and marketer of petroleum products. Giant owns and operates one Virginia and two New Mexico crude oil refineries, a crude oil gathering pipeline system based in Farmington, New Mexico, which services the New Mexico refineries, finished products distribution terminals in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Flagstaff, Arizona, a fleet of crude oil and finished product truck transports, and a chain of retail service station/convenience stores in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. Giant is also the Parent Company of Phoenix Fuel Co., Inc., an Arizona wholesale petroleum products distributor. For more information, please visit Giants website at www.giant.com.

ABOUT Q COMM INTERNATIONAL:   
Established in 1992, Q Comm International provides proprietary prepaid transaction processing and information management systems that facilitate electronic recharge or distribution of prepaid products from service providers or their distributors to retail points of sale. Q Comms solutions replace traditional hard cards (also known as scratch cards or vouchers) that are costly to distribute, and provide more comprehensive reporting and inventory management among other benefits.

In concert with its proprietary data center platform, Q Comms point-of-sale terminal, Qxpress 200, is currently used by wireless carriers or mobile operators, telecom distributors, and various retailers to sell a wide range of prepaid products and services including prepaid wireless or prepaid mobile, prepaid phone cards, prepaid dial tone and prepaid bank cards, such as prepaid MasterCard. Visit www.qcomm.com for more information.

This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated due to a number of factors, including shortages of raw materials, the companys financial condition and cash flow and general economic conditions. The companys plans and objectives are based on assumptions involving judgments with respect to future economic, competitive, regulatory and market conditions and future business decisions, all of which are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many of which are beyond the companys control. Therefore, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contacts:

Jeff Salzwedel
Salzwedel Financial Communications
+1 (503) 638-7777

Stephanie Noiseux
Elite Financial Communications Group
+1 (407) 585-1080

Paul Hickey
Q Comm International, Inc.
+1 (801) 226-4222, ext. 3301

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