High’s convenience stores earned second-place in the 2023 CSP Intouch Insight Mystery Shop, just behind first-place winner Rutter’s. High’s was the only chain in the mystery shop audit to receive a perfect score for its exterior.
Employees check the exterior every two to four hours, depending on the location, emptying trash so that it never rises above half of the can, stocking windshield wiper fluids, checking squeegees, cleaning pumps and making sure receipt paper is available.
“The general condition of the lot and curb lines [are] looked at because we know that’s the first point for a customer to get an impression of a visit to a High’s location,” says Brad Chivington, senior vice president of retail. “We put a lot of focus on that part.”
To ensure that pumps are free from skimmers, employees check that security tape has not been broken or removed—which indicates that it was opened—every four hours.
- High’s ranked No. 118 on CSP’s 2023 Top 202 list of the largest convenience retailers in the country.
High’s dedication to improvement knocked its mystery-shop score down in the fountain drink category with renovations underway in the middle of the audit. Still, the 60-store chain based in Baltimore, Maryland, received an outstanding overall score of 96.1%.
As the mystery shop and revealed audits were taking place, High’s was upgrading to handcrafted, better-for-you proprietary fountain soda flavors to align better with trends in the category. While carbonated soft drinks are declining in business, handcrafted sodas are a growing segment, says Chivington.
“My frustration was, in the best laid plans, this was going to all be done very smoothly,” he says. “It didn’t happen that way.”
But now, all the machines have been converted and the handcrafted sodas are up and running. The revamp took away from its score, but the chain saw an opportunity to appeal to a consumer trend and took it.
“Coming into this, we knew we were going to score low because there was nothing,” says Michele Truelove, vice president of operations. “We were at the mercy of a third-party contractor to convert these over, and it just did not go as smoothly as we wanted it to.”
High’s took care of its soft-drink customers by offering a comped carbonated-soft-drink bottle.
Also new to High’s this year is its bean-to-cup coffee format, which saves labor but also brings with it the challenge of making sure the coffee area doesn’t get neglected as a result.
“It took a lot for us to make sure we trained and got [employees] into that habit of being out there hourly and checking that area for the supplies needed, and ensuring they’re following up,” says Truelove. She says she didn’t want employees to get in the mindset that they didn’t have to care for the coffee area just because they didn’t have to brew it anymore.
High’s scored 95% in the category. The company received perfect scores for having fully stocked areas and all flavors displayed available for purchase. But only 73.8% of stores offered milk alternatives, which brought the chain’s overall coffee score down.
During the audit, High’s wholesaler changed warehouses, which led to distribution issues. The new warehouse didn’t necessarily have everything that the old one did, says Chivington. Some stores had the product during the audit while some didn’t.
“We’ve looked at alternatives,” says Chivington. “If one manufacturer’s not available, is there another one that we can get product from?”
The company has explored direct distribution to stores, secondary suppliers and its foodservice supplier to find what its grocery wholesaler cannot provide, he says.