There are four pillars John Pszeniczny’s operations team focuses on as it strives to make Nouria Energy Corp. the best convenience-store chain in the country: planogram, visible signage, cleanliness and customer service. When those areas are taken care of, the rest falls into place, the director of operations says.
“You don’t have to worry about the guest experience,” he says. “We don’t have to worry about their loyalty because they’re going to come back to you, but it’s a big responsibility.”
That responsibility has paid off for the Worcester, Massachusetts-based company, which is a back-to-back Mystery Shop winner.
The company finished with an overall score of 97.6% in this year’s contest, conducted by CSP and data analytics firm Intouch Insight. Pleasanton, California-based ExtraMile, 96.8%, and York, Pennsylvania-based Rutter’s, 96.5%, followed in second and third.
Nouria is a 319-store chain in its fourth year in the Mystery Shop. ExtraMile has 1,123 stores and finished first in 2004 and second in 2018. Rutter’s, which has 88 stores, won in 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2023.
The Mystery Shop evaluation is a combination of a revealed audit that accounts for 60% of the final score, in which the store employees are aware an evaluation is taking place. A mystery shopper assessment, where auditors check out the store anonymously, accounts for the remaining 40%. Ten convenience-store chains participated, and each had 100 locations audited by Ottawa, Ontario-based Intouch Insight.
Of this year’s final scores, only the three finalists scored 96% or better, but all 10 finished with at least 93%, a first for Mystery Shop.
“In this year’s Mystery Shop and Audit program, the top-scoring brands were the ones that prioritized spotless interiors and well-maintained exteriors,” says Cameron Watt, president and CEO of Intouch Insight. “That matters because customers connect a clean environment with care, safety and food quality. In fact, in a recent consumer survey, we found that 70% of shoppers said store cleanliness influences whether they believe the food is fresh. For operators competing in foodservice, that perception is critical to winning repeat visits.”
Employees are a big focus at Nouria which scored 99.5% (its top score in a tie with coffee) in the employees section of the revealed audit.
The convenience-store chain has a strategy to retain and develop employees.
“We believe it is very important to provide career pathing for each and every team member, and we invest in our teams through our core values,” Pszeniczny says. “They’re team members, they’re not employees. We invest in their future through an education development career path.”
Doug Whyte, a district manager, adds that Nouria strives to deliver the “ultimate guest experience at every site with every guest. We train our teams from day one to own the outcome by greeting our guests with ‘Welcome to Nouria’ and ensuring every guest leaves knowing we appreciate their business. Teamwork allows us to maintain beautiful buildings and exceed our guests’ expectations.”
After their first 90 days, when done with their new-hire training, store employees who have the desire and have shown the ability to do more have the Champions Program available to them, Pszeniczny says. The program is tailored to this group and teaches them about different competencies that might help them develop their career at Nouria in areas such as human resources or IT.
“It’s that first step if you were to stay within operations,” he says, adding that there also are training programs for assistant general manager, manager and district manager.
“Our vice president of IT started off as a cashier,” Pszeniczny says. “Our paralegal was a store manager. We helped her get through school.”
In 2025, Nouria almost doubled its store count with the acquisition of Savannah, Georgia-based Enmarket, a chain of 133 stores throughout Georgia and South and North Carolina.
The maintenance of all these stores, both inside and outside, are two other areas in the Mystery Shop where Nouria scored well. It finished in first place in both areas, 99.3% and 98.5%, respectively, in the revealed audit.
Pszeniczny stresses the importance of these two areas for success. As operators, he says, they want every building in the Nouria portfolio to be fresh, full and friendly.
“We use that phrase frequently because when you're fresh, full and friendly, you can’t go wrong,” he says. “You won’t disappoint your guest. So, we work hard looking in the corners, looking at the baseboards when it comes to sanitation, from the ceilings to the floors to the walls. It’s not always about making sure is all the merchandise out for sale.”
Outside a store, “We want to wow our guests,” he says. “We want beautifully landscaped properties and clean and neat building facades.”
This diligence leads to why the majority of Nouria customers say, “It doesn’t even feel like a convenience store because it’s open, it’s bright,” Pszeniczny says.
This brightness includes excellent visibility and provides an inviting sense to all the categories in the store, he says.
Most importantly, however, he says Nouria wants to make sure customers and employees feel safe, which starts with having a clean, well-lit property.
Nouria had the top score, 98.7%, among all the chains in the pump island category, an area that is inspected by the general manager at the beginning of daily.
“Every single day depending on the number of pumps, we have them cleaned top to bottom,” he says. If the location has five pumps, one is cleaned each day Monday through Friday, for example. On Saturday, cleaning will go back to the first pump, and continue from there.
In the coffee category, Nouria scored 99.5% by using “a great quality product, but equally important are the bean-to-cup machines,” he says.
“They brew on the spot so every coffee is literally fresh,” Pszeniczny says, adding that coffee quality is maintained via calibration and automatic cleaning cycles.
In addition, all employees know to walk the beverage counter, wipe down equipment and spills and keep the area stocked, he says.
Addressing coffee machine breakdowns also are a priority, and Nouria has a facilities platform at every location that enables an employee to log a ticket that “launches directly to a service provider, and we will typically have service in an emergency within four to six hours,” he says.
In the Mystery Shop audit, when it did not know it was being assessed, Nouria earned top scores for time spent waiting in line, courteous cashier, pleasant parting remark, well-stocked store and properly stocked restroom.
In addition to winning Mystery Shop in 2024, Nouria finished third in 2023.
“We have to be consistent,” Pszeniczny says. “We have to be dedicated to not wavering from what our roles are, and our role is to execute the play.”
For example, he says, “Let’s says the accounting team wants us to have paperwork done by the same time every day because that way we can get accurate sales data. I get exception-based reporting that’ll let me know when the store drops off, and then we can course-correct them quickly.”
To be one of the best in the c-store industry, it’s critical to be consistent with one’s message, Pszeniczny says.
“Make sure your message is heard across all streams,” he says. “When you have the ability to validate quickly on corporate initiatives, you can move very quickly.”
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