Husband and wife convenience-store owners Steve and Tracie Eddy believe constant evolution is key in standing up to big-box competition. They constantly update and evaluate their three-store operation of Fast Eddy’s in Meridian, Idaho, in an attempt to keep it a place customers remember.
The Eddys bought their first c-store in Boise, Idaho, in 1990 and then built 14 more over the course of the next decade. Their business boomed, employing 350 people and opening three of the first cobranded Chevron McDonald’s locations in the country. But when an opportunity presented itself in 2003, the Eddys decided to sell it all. “We worked a lot and we just got tired,” Steve says. “We never really envisioned getting back into the c-store business.”
Yet they did just that in 2007, buying an unfinished c-store and transforming it into an instant success. “It was a rocket ship of a store,” Steve says. “Right from the start, our customers told us we were different from our competition.”
In 2011, they built a sister store from the ground up. The 6,700-square-foot store looks massive, even on the large 4-acre lot where it sits.
“We went out on a limb with the color scheme,” Steve says. “It’s copper-orange and brown. It’s a really different look.” The interior of the store has a homey feel to it. “We put in a floor most people would be happy to have in their kitchen, and we went over the top in the bathrooms. We put mosaic stone on the walls and interior lighting you’d see in your house rather than traditional commercial fixtures.”
They also made sure the store felt spacious and open. “Retailers used to be taught to put 10 pounds in a 5-pound bag,” Steve says. “But we do the opposite. We don’t plug our stores up.”
He also added a quick lube and carwash tunnel, and in 2012 he built a third store to match. The first location has since been remodeled, so now all three stores have a consistent look. They’re all Chevron-branded Fast Eddy’s, and they’re all worth remembering.
Auto-Matic
The car wash at the largest Fast Eddy’s location can accommodate 16 cars for full-service washes and detailing and has 23 vacuums out back. It has all McNeal equipment, including automated kiosks at all three lanes for customers who have purchased unlimited monthly wash plans and placed scannable microchips on their windshields.
Promotions keep customers coming back. Fast Eddy’s offers 5 to 20 cents off per gallon for car-wash purchases, and a free car wash with every lube. “The traditional lube is $24.95, and we give away a $15 car wash with it,” Steve says. “It’s a great deal.”
The lube center also sells and rotates tires, a nontraditional service for a lube. Between the car wash, the lube and the 16 fueling stations on site, there’s no shortage of cars on this lot.
CONTINUED: Growlers Galore
Growlers Galore
Fast Eddy’s also carries great foodservice options to bring customers inside. It sells Lucky Fins sushi, made fresh daily, and burritos and quesadillas from a local Mexican restaurant. It also sells sandwiches made fresh in-house, and it has 48 fountain heads in every store. But it’s the Eddys’ most recent innovation that really has customers’ attention: Growler bars sit at every location, and each include a minimum of 20 beers on tap, roughly eight of them local.
“When I open a store, people expect me to come up with something new,” Steve says. “When we opened our last store, growlers intrigued me.”
The technology they use is by The Growler Station of California, because it seemed ahead of the curve to the Eddys at the time. The company offers an online inventory management program and app called Beer Wizard. The Eddys have done a lot of experimenting so far, changing more than half of the tap handles since January trying to find what sells best.
“It’s been interesting to learn,” Steve says. “You can’t just put a cashier there to manage growlers. You have to train them to be a bartender. And customer awareness is also a challenge. The majority of customers today don’t know what a growler is.”
But he’s confident that’s evolving, too. Steve believes it’s only a matter of time before growlers become the norm everywhere, and at that point, it’s customer service that will distinguish the good stores from the bad.
Strategic Marketing
Fast Eddy’s marketing strategy is a constant evolution as well. “We’re actually behind already,” Steve says. “Facebook is continuing to be a driver, I think, but nobody has put a tangible value on it. It continues to intrigue more and more customers, but it’s hard to measure.”
In addition to a Facebook page, Fast Eddy’s has its own app, which Steve believes will be more important than the company’s Facebook or website presence in attracting customers. The couple hired OpenStore to design their app, which gives customers store information, fuel pricing and current promotions, and acts a way for customers to submit feedback about the store.
“We launched the app about six months ago and it’s already outdated,” Steve says. He plans to update it soon.
Fast to the Future
The owners have plenty of plans for Fast Eddy’s future, starting with a new store, car wash and lube on a 4-acre site on Eagle Road in Meridian, one of the busiest roads in Idaho.
“I’m sure people will be wanting to know what new thing I’ll come up with,” Steve says, “but we’re pretty happy with what we’ve got going, so I’m not sure I’ll change things much.”
And there’s enough growth in Meridian to sustain new Fast Eddy’s locations there.
“It’s easy for us to manage things when all of our stores are close together,” Steve says, “and the city does a great job of making sure there’s a good balance of residents and businesses.”
Steve’s 22-year-old son is now working for him, and his wife handles the human-relations side of Fast Eddy’s full time.
“My wife and I make a great team,” Steve says, “but it isn’t just us. It takes a lot of good people to run a business like this. We have very little turnover, so our customers get to know our faces.”
Focusing on HR is one of Fast Eddy’s secrets. The other is focusing on competitors.
“The biggest thing I see with independent retailers is that people just give up when the big boys come in,” Steve says. “They don’t continue to change and evolve to keep customers excited.”
Being hands-on as an owner has kept Steve and his business an evolutionary success.
“You can’t just hire a manager in this business and walk away, especially when you’re competing against chains,” he says. “You have to be involved and proactive.”
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