Wonder, the fast-growing food hall/delivery concept, has made its way into convenience stores.
The company partnered with northeastern c-store staple Cumberland Farms to open a Wonder outlet in one of its locations in Rhode Island last month. A second Cumberland Farms, in Massachusetts, is offering three Wonder brands as in-house food options.
Convenience stores are a new channel for Wonder, which also operates about 20 standalone units and has three locations inside Walmarts. Each location offers menus from different Wonder restaurant brands for to-go or dine-in. Some of the brands were created by Wonder, often with well-known chefs. Others are independent brands that Wonder acquired, such as DiFara Pizza and Fred’s Meat & Bread. The company has nearly 30 brands in total.
The Wonder storefront attached to a Cumberland Farms in East Providence, Rhode Island, offers nine brands for delivery, pickup and dine-in. They include Mexican concept Limesalt, Burger Baby, Wing Trip and Alanza Pizza. The location is operated by Wonder.
In New Bedford, Massachusetts, the Cumberland Farms is operating three brands: Alanza Pizza, Burger Baby and Wing Trip. They are positioned as Cumberland Farms foodservice options and not Wonder-branded, and the menus are scaled down. Customers can order them in the store or on DoorDash.
The arrangement is similar to Wonder’s B2B division, WonderWorks, which offers white-labeled versions of Wonder brands to other foodservice businesses. But this is the first instance in which a partner is offering the brands as-is, the company said.
Framingham, Massachusetts-based Cumberland Farms is owned by EG America, which has more than 1,500 locations across the country.
EG America is No. 5 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 U.S. c-store chains by store count.
Wonder’s move into convenience stores comes amid an aggressive growth push for the company, which is aiming to have 90 locations by the end of 2025. As of July, it was planning to open a store every week for 78 straight weeks. The locations will be concentrated in the Northeast.
It also comes as convenience stores continue to beef up their foodservice offerings, making them a growing threat to restaurants.
Wonder was founded in 2018 by billionaire entrepreneur Marc Lore. It has raised about $1.5 billion to fuel its growth.
This story first appeared inRestaurant Business.
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