Inside the New Charlottesville Sheetz Cafe
By Greg Lindenberg on Sep. 28, 2017CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Sheetz Inc. opened a new, 24/7 convenience store in Charlottesville, Va., on Sept. 28, near the University of Virginia. It is the latest of the retailer’s stores without gasoline, a cafe design that has rolled out so far in only three other university towns.
Sheetz piloted the cafe concept in March 2015, with a fuel-free, foodservice-centric unit close to the West Virginia University campus in Morgantown, W.Va. Since then, it has opened cafe stores in State College, Pa., near Penn State, as well as in Indiana, Pa., on the campus of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Here’s a look at the new Charlottesville store …
Photos courtesy of Hannah Mussi, The Cavalier Daily, unless otherwise noted.
“We’ve been looking at a store in Charlottesville for quite some time, but I think it’s obvious to anybody who spends any time in this area that this is a high-traffic area for pedestrians,” Nick Ruffner, public relations manager for Sheetz, told The Cavalier Daily.
Photo courtesy of the Virginia Cavaliers.
“There’s a lot of things available beyond the sodas, the chips, the typical things you’d see in a store like this. …
We have an entire cooler dedicated to healthy options,” Ruffner said. “We have things like fresh fruit, yogurt, vegetables, hummus—a wide variety of options.”
Customers can order food, then eat and study at booths and window seats facing the street, said the report. It offers free Wi-Fi and has multiple TVs and charging ports for electronics. Customers can order customized items using touchscreen kiosks.
The store features a Coca-Cola Freestyle fountain unit, as well as an iced-tea and frozen-dispensed beverages area.
The new store has an uncluttered checkout next to the food delivery area.
Sheetz is still hiring workers to staff the new location, the company said.
The Charlottesville Sheetz Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, as the sign above the door indicates.
For the opening-day celebration, the first 100 customers will receive a Sheetz tailgate chair, and one winner will receive a $1,000 Sheetz gift card.
“We are also donating $2,500 to the Special Olympics of Virginia. We are a major supporter of Special Olympics in every state where we are operating,” Ruffner said. “We’re also donating $1,500 to the local food bank, as part of Feeding America, and so that’s just another way that we’re pledging to help the folks that are needy or less fortunate in this community.”
Altoona, Pa.-based Sheetz operates approximately 565 c-stores in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and North Carolina.