The Deep River store is the second of the company's renovated stores, following the debut of the concept with a store the opened in Farmington, Conn., on March 13. (Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage.)
The stores are part of a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment in revitalizing the brand.
Emphasizing the chain's farm-family heritage, the concept focuses on fresh food. It offers a variety of sandwiches that can be toasted on site, chocolate milkshakes, flatbread breakfast sandwiches, personal pepperoni pizzas and more.
The "foodcentric" store was designed with the goal "to create for an environment in the store [that] represents and communicates our commitment to delivering really great, quality food products, beverages and food items," said Ari Haseotes, president of Cumberland Farms.
The Deep River store opened about 45 minutes from the Farmington store. Cumberland Farms/Gulf Oil group CEO Joe Petrowski said the distance was purposeful. "The first 20 or 30 stores, we're probably going to do an eclectic collection of sites," he told CSP Daily News. "We're going to take small and large sites, different demographic areas and then test out certain theories of what works or doesn't work."
He added, "From an operational and promotion standpoint, you'd like to cluster them. You'd like to do them as geographically close as you redo your system. But from the point of view of 'what are we learning from this from the customer' perspective, you want variance so you can test certain theories in different markets. We've chosen the latter at least in the initial stages because we're more interested in getting it right than seeing the immediate payback."
To help celebrate the opening and to make an overture to joining the community, Cumberland Farms presented the Deep River Elementary School with a $1,000 donation. The school plans to use the funds as part of its student activity account.
Canton, Mass.-based Cumberland Farms has network of retail stores, gas stations and a support system including petroleum, dairy and grocery distribution operations that spans 11 states across the Northeast and Florida.
Click hereto view CSPTV's report on the Farmington store.
And for more on Cumberland Farms' new store concept, watch for the May issue of CSP magazine.
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