The restaurant industry is not known as an industry
that adopts to change very well. If fact
it is the one retail sector that cultivates customer relationships with comfort
food of the past. There is one problem
with that and that is comfort food of the past reflects more yesterday than
today.
Convenience stores were made to change and evolve. Here is one example and there are
plenty more according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson. QuikTrip Corporation most of you may not know or don’t remember,
but QuikTrip began as a grocery store that opened and operated for many years
before they got even got into gasoline becoming one of the fastest growing and
successful convenience stores today.
Now here is the
conundrum for operators of restaurants.
Increasingly companies the ilk of Wawa, Kwik Trip Inc.,
QuikTrip Corp., Sheetz, and Maverik have all been
opening retail locations without gasoline. Mike Thornbrugh, spokesperson for
QuikTrip, which operates more than 700 c-stores in 11 states and opened its
first store sans fuel in downtown Atlanta this past June stated “The store in
Atlanta was the right time and location, and a good opportunity for us to see
if it will be successful and to learn from it.”
Thornbrugh continued
“To open a store without gasoline has been part of our strategic plan for some
time, but it had to be the right timing and the right location… As part of the
retail space of Viewpoint Condominiums, the 3,500-square-foot QuikTrip store in
downtown Atlanta offers a range of grocery items, as well as fresh foods
through the QT Kitchens made-to-order concept.
The new non-fuel
QTKitchens store is focused even more on the fresh food side of the business
than other locations. Non-fuel locations for QuickTrip are placing a lot of
emphasis on fresh food will give us a chance to bring a lot of different
products in; to see if we can perfect it and learn from it,” according to
Thornbrugh.
Another convenience
chain opening stores Non-fuel retail outlets focused on Ready-2-Eat and
Heat-N-Eat fresh food is Sheetz, based in Altoona, Pa.. Sheetz has for the past couple of years
described its C-stores as “convenience restaurant” concept. Louie Sheetz, the
past EVP of Marketing for the retailers and now member of the board of directors,
explained how non-fuel retail is the direction the retailer is headed in for
the future.
Sheetz already has a
full-scale convenience restaurant operating in Altoona, and opened two Sheetz
Cafés in Morgantown and State College, Pa. Another location without gasoline
was slated to open this fall in Indiana, Pa.
Tarah
Arnold, public relations manager for Sheetz, recently stated that the non-fuel
retail outlets “have been incredibly successful due to the location of the two
cafes in two college towns and the loyalty of our Sheetz customers for our food
offering.”
For a C-store to be
successful without gasoline, a store has to offer high-quality, well-differentiated
Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food according to Foodservice
Solutions® team. Sheetz leverages the strength of the standalone c-store and
competes very well with quick-service restaurants utilizing the FIVE P’s of Grocerant
Marketing.
Both Sheetz and Wawa have such a strong
c-store offer, that each has locations that would be more viable if they
removed the fuel allocating more space for customer parking.
The
undercurrents of change are engulfing the restaurant sector. The conundrum for restaurant operators is
that C-stores are not a start-up competitive threat. They are evolving retailers that on average
have vastly higher volume sales per-location, higher profits, more cash on
hand, and established loyal customers.
Restaurateurs simply don’t understand, accept, or believe that there is
a new retail platform / environment that they must adjust too. How Grocerant niche Mix and Match bundling
and Foodservice Solutions® can help.
Foodservice Solutions® specializes in
outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify
additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment, and
brand or menu integration strategy. Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche
visit: Linkedin.com/in/grocerant, Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, or twitter.com/grocerant
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