QuikTrip Convenience Store Expanding with Health Care / Urgent Care

 

There is no doubt that finding a way to drive incremental business in the convenience store space is a hard thing to do.  However, Quik Trip is edifying its brand with the ‘halo’ of better for you by adding MedWise walk-in medical clinics and many of its locations.

Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®, stated, “Quik Trip will garner customers looking for health care and be able to introduce them to their brand, food offering, Gas, and beverage options that many will have never before enjoyed. 

There is no doubt that QuikTrip Corp. is looking to expand the types of convenient services it offers by opening more urgent care clinics.  With its wholly owned subsidiary MedWise LLC plans to develop more walk-in medical clinics in regions such as Wichita, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.

MedWise spokesperson Antonya Pharr noted that no estimated opening dates for new sites yet exist, according to a Kansas City Star report.

Medwise Chief Medical Officer Patrick Aguilar, stated, "QuikTrip is known for friendly, efficient delivery of high-quality products to customers around the country,"…. "We believe that these are the exact characteristics that will help us provide excellent care to patients at MedWise."

Aguilar continued, “that patients have a right to expect high-quality clinical care, and QuikTrip's reputation for fast and reliable service at more than 900 convenience stores will help support that mission.”

In case you did not know, MedWise LLC currently operates 11 MedWise urgent care clinics in and around the Tulsa, Okla., area. The company first opened MedWise urgent care clinics in the retailer's home state of Oklahoma in 2020. Each facility employs 10 to 15 people.

MedWise Urgent Care offers a broad range of urgent care services, including:

·         Testing for COVID-19, flu and strep;

·         Treatment for illnesses, injuries and infections for all ages;

·         Vaccinations and flu shots; and

·         Occupational medicine services such as DOT, state and government physicals, pre- and post-employment physicals, and Workers' Comp assessment.

So, existing MedWise clinics allow patients to use Medicare and Medicaid to access services, according to the report. In-person and telehealth appointments can also be made in addition to walk-in appointments.

Urgent care isn't the only area in which QuikTrip is expanding. The convenience store operator is reportedly planning to open three c-stores in the Chicago metropolitan area, with the first expected to open its doors in 2023. How are you expanding your brand?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

 

The Halo of ‘Better-4-You’ Continues to Drive Food Sales

 

Time starved, lacking a skill-set to cook all of the different flavors of food Americans have been exposed to over the past 10 years consumers are finding alternative avenues of fresh food distribution for food items that have the halo of better-4-you and are full flavored according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

In a new report by The NPD Group found, “Today, the focus is on customized diets, nutrient intake and functional foods, according to NPD's recent "America’s Health Pulse: Closing the Gap Between Wants and Needs" report.  

They found, “Four macro needs drive all consumption: fueling, wellness, connecting and gratifying. Fueling is the top driver, influencing one-third of all eating occasions. The need for wellness grew throughout the pandemic and is second to fueling as a consumption driver. Wellness now directly impacts 21 percent of all eating occasions, which amounts to billions of occasions annually. With most meals sourced from home — a behavior established long before the pandemic — NPD expects wellness as a consumption driver to remain elevated into the foreseeable future.” Let’s see what else they found.

“Although consumers seek wellness overall, they are also homing in on specific areas. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a new focus on the food as medicine movement. Concern over the highly contagious and potentially deadly COVID-19 virus led many to consider their food choices to help build immunity, concluded NPD. The importance of strong immunity remains a top wellness focus from a holistic standpoint rather than specifically fighting the virus.

Foods and ingredients that build immunity, like elderberry, jackfruit, and bone broth, are popular with consumers. Additionally, the aging baby boomer population is looking to food as medicine in order to find remedies to either cure or manage health conditions.   

Consumers customize their health and wellness eating goals with a variety of tools. These tools include social media and following social media influencers, personalized eating and fitness plans from healthcare providers or trainers, apps and technology-enabled exercise equipment, and forecasting health using genetic markers, NPD stated in the report.

Darren Seifer, food and beverage industry analyst at The NPD Group and author of the report stated, "The pattern of consumer attention to health and wellness shows increasing awareness and adaptation across the board," ... "This means consumers no longer think of health and wellness as an add-on, but as an integrated part of how they live their lives; that, in turn, opens opportunity for brands to become a permanent solution."

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869