PHOENIX -- It's almost overused, the phrase thinking outside the box. But in the case of this year's Convenience Retailing Award winners, honored last night during the Convenience Retailing Conference in Phoenix, it's an apt description for the three honorees.
The winnersCoast to Coast, Fuel Warehouse and Kwik Tripall have taken their experience in retail and turned it on its head to come up with new concepts or ways of doing business.
CSP's award for Most Entrepreneurial Independent Operator goes to Amer Hawatmeh, creator of [image-nocss] the Coast to Coast retail concept in Tampa, Fla. Hawatmeh operated a few stores in the St. Louis market before opening Coast to Coast in 2006. He followed the lead of best-in-class retailers such as Wallis Cos. and QuikTrip to create what he calls a family convenience center.
Hawatmeh hired a design firm with no experience in designing convenience stores or restaurants because he wanted his pet project to look and feel like nothing else the industry had ever seen. While most convenience stores target blue-collar males, Hawatmeh wanted to invent a store that would cater to females and families. And he has. His own wife once asked him, How come your store looks nicer than my house?
The winner of the Best Store Design award is Fuel Warehouse, brought to life in 2003 by the operators of Mallard Food Shops.
Fuel Warehouse, identifiable from a distance by its arched, corrugated-metal roof, is a feast for the eyes. The sloping metal canopy ties the store to the fuel island and vice versa. While the store looks expensive to build, it's really not much more than a typical convenience store, according to Randy Godsell, general manager of Mallard Oil.
But creating the Fuel Warehouse has changed the company's entire mentality on the c-store business, Godsell said. While the store's two locations for now are limited to North Carolina, the store's creators believe the model could work anywhere. I could take this to Philadelphia or Chicago, and it could be just as accepted there, he said. We've got two more Warehouses already under way, but our ultimate goal is national. Within three years, I'd like to think we could have 20 or 30 stores.
Finally, the award for Excellence in Execution goes to Kwik Trip. The La Crosse, Wis.-based company has created an intricate store-support system that has transformed it into one of the industry's most progressive and efficient retailers. Whenever the executives of Kwik Trip Inc. make a decision about the company, they have one thing in mind: How will it affect the stores and, more importantly, the people manning those stores seven days a week, 365 days a year?
While Kwik Trip has established well-planned systems to keep stores humming, it's the company's dedicated people who have made Kwik Trip truly excellent. Thousands of co-workers serve the company's retail properties and support operations, with above-average results in co-worker retention.
Read more about the winners in the April issue of CSP magazine.
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