Kid Friendly C-stores Winning at Retail

Success does leave clues and convenience stores offering fresh food offerings for the entire family including children are garnering more visits, larger checks, all while evolving  a positive image for their brand, the convenience store sector, and grocerant niche fresh prepared food sales according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.  

Empowering solutions by offering speed and convenience the 155,000 convenience stores the United States, have found a combination of success steps to garner customers from both legacy grocery store chain and legacy chain restaurants. 

CSNews.com, in partnership with its sister company Carbonview Research, “recently surveyed 1,505 consumers who shop at a convenience store at least once a month for its eighth-annual Realities of the Aisle consumer study. The sample of respondents was obtained from a national panel, representing the total population based on gender, age, region, income, and presence of children in the household. The yearly survey essentially asks respondents the who, what, when, where, why and how of their shopping habits.”

Carbonview Research delved into the demographic profile of c-store shoppers  and “interestingly, the presence of children in the household seems to have the greatest influence over whether c-store shoppers choose to visit a small operator or a chain.”

In fact the study found “Shoppers sans kids at home — a majority of c-store shoppers, at 58 percent — show a striking preference for small operators: cited by 67.7 percent as their typical choice, compared to 56.9 percent who typically shop at a chain location. Among the 42 percent of c-store shoppers with children living in their household, more typically shop at chains (43.1 percent) than at small operators (32.3 percent).”  So as a retailer is chain or independent what is best? Here is some of what else they found:

1.       customer service, 66.5 percent of those who shop at small operators rated their usual store as excellent/very good.

2.       61.5 percent of chain shoppers who said the same about their usual c-store’s customer service.

3.       Small operators, they earn a higher rating on convenience, but by a very slim margin: 84.5 percent of those who shop at small operators rated their store as excellent/very good on convenience, one point higher than chain shoppers at 83.5 percent.

4.       There was some bad news for small operators, that news is customer service and convenience are the only attributes where they win out.

5.       Conversely, more chain shoppers than small-operator shoppers rate their usual c-store as excellent/very good in the areas of variety of products offered, price, quality of prepared food, and fun to shop.

6.       The two attributes where small operators lag chains most are variety of products offered, and quality of prepared food.

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  is the global leader in grocerant niche business development.  We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Has your company had a Grocerant ScoreCard completed?  Want one?  Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us