Gone are the days when the wrapping around the convenience store sandwich tasted the same as the food itself, said the report. "That's been the historical perception," Simon Osborn, RaceTrac's vice president of logistics and foodservice, told the newspaper. "You could grab something [image-nocss] quick, but not quality. That's not what the consumer wants any more. They want more selections, healthy choices. They want to know that they are buying a quality product."
Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip Corp., which has 117 stores in metro Atlanta, began upgrading its food offerings four years ago, added the report. QuikTrip has built five commissary/bakeries, including a $22 million kitchen facility in Ellenwood, Ga., that opened in 2009, to prepare its food offerings, Mike Thornbrugh, QuikTrip spokesperson, told the paper.
"We don't think this is a trend," he said. "This is a movement. Those in the industry who want to grow and survive [have to make changes to the food offerings.] The fresh food or grab-and-go is pretty much where the industry is heading."
While Thornbrugh would not disclose whether the upgraded food offerings have helped sales at the privately held chain, he said, "QuikTrip would not have invested hundreds of million of dollars on new commissary/bakeries unless the long-term return was good."
The trend in the c-store industry has been to take advantage of the "convenient locations and convenient hours to sell refreshment, however the customer defines it," Jeff Lenard, vice president of communications for the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), told the Chronicle. "We sell immediate consumption."
A typical c-store gets 1,100 customers per day, Lenard said. "QuikTrip and RaceTrac probably do better than that." Two-thirds are in-store customers, while the remainder are out-of-store, pay-at-pump customers, he said.
Osborn said RaceTrac has been expanding its convenience stores to about 5,000 square feet and adding merchandise, as well, "as we see the changing needs of our guests."
Both RaceTrac and QuikTrip have been deliberate in upgrading their food offerings, and have not rushed to get product to all stores. Lenard said that is smart.
"If you do it wrong, it can really come back to bite you," he told the paper. "The retailer mentality is you stock shelves, you sell an item, then you restock the shelves." But with food, c-store owners must adopt a restaurant mentality, which means throwing away product that isn't fresh, Lenard said. "With foodservice, the customer is much less forgiving," he said. A bad food experience means the customer likely will not return.
RaceTrac's new line of sandwiches, Osborn said, "are far better quality than we had previously."
RaceTrac has formed partnerships with major brands like Nathan's Famous Inc. for its hot dogs, and Krispy Kreme Doughnut Inc. and Atlanta Bread Co. for its bakery items, Osborn said.
RaceTrac has also added some hot products, he said, such as quesadillas, mini beef tacos and hot cookies.
Even the common cup of coffee is getting made over, said the report. "We've had coffee for years, and we've looked for ways to improve it," he said.
RaceTrac now offers various syrups to flavor coffee, as well as brewing fresh pots more often, Osborn said. "You continue to see the bar raised in all areas of retail," he said.
Sales of food items "are not as high as we'd like," Osborn added, but RaceTrac is hoping that will improve. He did not disclose sales numbers for the privately held company.
QuikTrip thinks it has "everything in place and now we need to start focusing," Thornbrugh told the Chronicle. "We make our own fresh deli sandwiches, salads, fruit cups, pastries and cookies."
QuikTrip is still looking at ways to add to and improve the menu offerings, he said. "Nothing is off the table," Thornbrugh said. "We've tried some things that were OK sellers, but not great."
And QuikTrip has "overcome the resistance that was out there" from customers who were not used to getting fresh food at a gas station, he said. "That's the biggest hurdle."
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