The number of women in leadership roles in the convenience-store channel is increasing.
Women lead 6% of the largest chains in the convenience industry—up from 3% in 2023, according to an evaluation of CSP’s 2024 Top 202 list of the top U.S. c-store chains by store count.
CSP spoke to Jessica Mente (pictured center), director of training and leadership development at Royal Farms, about how she has put her Convenience-Store Women’s event learnings to work after the inaugural event in November and how she's advanced her career and workplace for women.
After attending the first two CSW events, held in November 2023 and 2024, Mente’s boss sat her down to discuss how she could get to the next level of her career. Now, Mente is working on creating a formal mentorship program at the convenience-store chain of about 300 stores. She also will be attending monthly meetings with C-suite and other company leaders to deepen her knowledge of the company’s financials and strategies.
“I’ll be invited to those meetings to, at first, observe, take it in, [determine], ‘How do people interact and engage?’ and ‘How can I participate and contribute?’ And then, ultimately, just giving me more exposure to that so I can increase my contributions there,” Mente told CSP.
- Royal Farms is No. 28 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 U.S. c-store chains by store count.
It’s steps like being invited to these meetings that help women grow their business, strategic and financial acumen, and help close The Missing 33%, according to Leading NOW CEO Kelly Lockwood Primus. Leading NOW says a perceived lack of business, strategic and financial acumen is the top reason that’s preventing women from climbing to the top of their fields.
Mente has also been considering developing a formal mentorship program at Royal Farms, and a mentorship program that specifically elevates women in leadership. Creating such a program was the topic of a power team's presentation at CSW in 2024. The power teams are a group of women and male attendees of CSW who spent the past year between conferences researching a topic in women’s leadership and presenting their findings and solutions at the event.
“I think it was something that I was a little bit scared to jump into in the past because I don't have time, I know this is going to be a lot of work,” Mente said. “But I'm passionate about it and I wanted to do it, and I think that that is definitely becoming a little bit more of a possibility this year after seeing that [power team presentation].”
Building the Leadership Pipeline
Mente is also involved with several projects now to help build the workforce in Maryland, where Royal Farms is based. The Baltimore-based chain also has locations in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.
Mente recently wrapped up her first year as a board member on the Maryland State Governor’s Workforce Development Board. She is serving a four-year term to help strategize and implement workforce development solutions for the state.
She also started, and with the help of her team, implemented, the Royal Farms Store Leader Apprenticeship Program. The program, through a partnership with the state of Maryland, is a year-long journey designed to equip Maryland residents with the essential training, skills and education to succeed in a store leader role.
There are financial benefits to Royal Farms for participating in the program, including tax credits and wage reimbursements for the training apprentices go through. But there are also soft benefits, Mente said, including higher retention, and lower recruitment costs.
“Royal Farms is a growing company, right? So we're opening 20-25 stores a year, if not a little bit more. In order to be a high-growth company, we have to have a continuous pipeline of leaders. We can’t constantly be in this firefighting mode,” she said.
Five apprentices went through the pilot program during the first year, and most applicants came from within the company, Mente said.
“This is just another path that internals see as an opportunity for a rewarding career. That’s actually where we've gotten most of our applicants for the program, is people that are in the lower-level leadership positions, or even associate positions, and they're like, ‘Hey, you're telling me that at the end of the year, if I put in the work that I can make this money and be a store leader? Sign me up.’”
Finding Balance
Amid working on all of these projects, Mente has reminded herself over the past year to be more comfortable saying “no” to maintain good mental health.
“I am aggressively selfish about my own personal development [and] taking the next steps in my career,” she said. “And sometimes it feels like if you say no, that you could be closing off a door that you needed to open.”
Asking herself questions like, “How full is my plate right now?” helps her determine when it’s better to say no so she can avoid burnout and keep reaching her ambitious goals.
Royal Farms opened its first c-store in Baltimore in 1959 under the name White Jug. Today, the Mid-Atlantic chain has more than 300 locations in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.