Haffner’s, an Energy North convenience-store chain of 72 stores, opened a new flagship store in its own backyard—just three-quarters of a mile away from its base in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The 6,200-square-foot location is a result of the business listening to its community and contributing what it asked for: convenience items, gasoline, a car wash and a unique take on foodservice.
“There’s a lot of apartments and condos across the street, so we made it a mini grocery store so that people can get their everyday items close by without having to go to [the] supermarket,” said Jeff Black, CEO of Energy North Inc.
The company has been working on a new image for Haffner’s for a few years, said Black, which it has implemented into its existing stores. But what elevates the flagship location is its interior design, he said.
“We paid a lot of attention to detail to honor the history of the city."
Lawrence is an old textile mill town, said Black, and the store features murals of mills and workers from the late 1800s to early 1900s, plus photographs of the original Lawrence Haffner’s location in 1925.
“We paid a lot of attention to detail to honor the history of the city and what was there before,” said Black. “The mayor was taken back by kind of the homage we gave to city.”
The color scheme corresponds with Haffner’s brand colors. Red tiling represents the wine area, yellow tiling designates the beer cave and blue tiling surrounds the packaged beverages section.
Two years ago, Haffner’s partnered with a major player in Lawrence, real-estate developer Lupoli Cos., after owner Sal Lapoli suggested placing a gas station and c-store near the city’s entrance. The Lupoli family also owns Sal’s Pizza, a New England pizza joint, which is offered in six Haffner’s stores, including the new location.
“Sal’s and Haffner’s are such iconic brands in the city of Lawrence,” said Black. “We wanted to put in a flagship store to show that money should be flowing into the city. Not a lot of people invest in Lawrence. We wanted to; it’s done so much for us, done so much for the Lupoli companies.”
The Sal’s menu at Haffner’s includes six to eight variations of pizza, including sweet chili chicken, barbecue chicken and chicken bacon ranch, offered by the slice and whole pies.
There are also calzones, garlic knots and salads on the menu.
“We have plans to launch [Sal’s Pizza] in a lot more [locations], and we actually have plans to launch his program in other convenience stores throughout New England and further, if possible,” said Black.
STORE STATS
Size: 6,200 square feet
Address: 425 Merrimack St., Lawrence, Massachusetts
Opened: May 2023
Notable Details:
- Sal’s Pizza by the slice
- Crack’d breakfast program with drive-thru
- Historic murals of textile mills
- Second-oldest continuously operated Mobil store in the country
- Located at city’s entrance
Haffner’s flagship location also reaches customers with its Crack’d Express morning coffee program, a convenience-style extension of the Andover, Massachusetts-based Crack’d Kitchen & Coffee restaurant. The owner and CEO’s father works for Haffner’s, said Black, so it was “great to keep it in the family with Alan [Frati]’s dad (of the same name) working on the heating side of the business, and now our partnership with Crack’d on the convenience store side. It’s been fun to work with those guys.”
The Crack’d Express menu is a pared-down version of Crack’d Kitchen’s menu, focusing primarily on craft breakfast sandwiches—made with cage-free eggs, house-made sausage and local applewood smoked bacon—and coffee drinks. The Crack’d Kitchen & Coffee team selected these popular items from their original concept, believing they would best cater to the needs of the drive-thru and traveling gas station customer base.
The store includes a Crack’d storefront and drive-thru, and the team has decreased the wait time from order to delivery to about two-and-a-half minutes, said Black. Much like Sal’s Pizza, after launching Crack’d in a few locations as a beta test, Haffner’s aims to offer it to the other chains, Black said.
“On the Sal’s side, I’m a sucker for the sweet chili chicken pizza,” he said. “And I’ll put a Crack’d fried chicken sandwich in the chicken wars against Chick-fil-A and Popeyes because they do a hell of a job with [it].”
Grand opening sales have been higher than expected in the first month, said Black, and the Sal’s and Crack’d concepts are working better than expected.
“I couldn’t be prouder of what the team accomplished two and a half years in the making from the concept that Sal and I sat a room two and a half years ago talking about,” he said.
With the Lawrence store’s success, the company is carrying out a full raze and rebuild with an existing store in Gloucester, Massachusetts. It will have the same inside concept, color scheme and food offerings, and like Lawrence, it’s located at one of the two main entrances into the city.
This location in Gloucester is home to the second-oldest continuously operated Mobil store in the country, and the city takes pride in Haffner’s keeping it as such, said Black. And the big-picture future of Haffner’s, Black said, is growth on three fronts: new-to-industry stores, razes and rebuilds and acquisitions.
“I don’t see us stopping at 72 sites,” he said. “I see us continuing to grow throughout the New England marketplace.”