New Break Time Concept Breaks With Rural Strategy
By Greg Lindenberg on Jan. 05, 2017COLUMBIA, Mo. --MFA Oil Co. is unveiling a customer-focused layout, an enhanced food concept and refreshed branding for its Break Time chain of convenience stores.
The company’s 74th c-store, located in Lee’s Summit, Mo., is the first to feature the new concept.
Click through for the details, and to take a look …
The 5,000-square-foot Lee's Summit site is the first store to incorporate Break Time’s new logo and accompanying graphics. In addition to a fresh look, designers developed a store layout with an open, customer-centric floor plan that prominently features a new carryout food concept with an established area barbecue restaurant, Smokestack BAR.B.Q.
“Our goal is to create a warm, welcoming atmosphere from the moment a customer steps foot inside,” said Curtis Chaney, MFA Oil’s senior vice president of retail operations in charge of the Break Time chain. “Aesthetically, we’ve designed a clean and easy-to-navigate store experience that matches the excitement of launching a new Break Time logo and style.”
Break Time created the desired shopping experience with a series of “simple but effective” changes, the company said, such as raising the ceilings, repositioning the checkout and decorating with wood embellishments and a calming color palette.
Smokestack BAR.B.Q. has a history in the greater Kansas City, Mo., area dating back to 1957.
“The meats served at Break Time’s Smokestack will be hickory smoked, and we’ll also feature several sauces and savory sides,” Chaney said. “Most importantly, it’s great-tasting barbecue that our customers know and love, and for the Break Time brand, it’s a big win to partner with such a high-quality restaurant brand.”
Break Time will extend the new design package and Smokestack food concept to several new stores and stores slated for renovation in 2017.
The suburban Kansas City Lee’s Summit location is a change from Break Time’s rural strategy.
“To grow the brand and expand our business, we’re introducing Break Time to new markets such as Lee’s Summit,” Chaney said. “Our team will closely monitor this store’s performance and apply the lessons learned to future expansions.”
The 1.5-acre c-store lot also features a car wash—not the first, but it is the first in recent years to be built with one included.
Launched in 1985, the Break Time c-store chain is owned and operated by MFA Oil, Columbia, Mo. As of January 2017, there are 74 Break Time locations in Missouri and Arkansas. Break Time’s clean, friendly stores feature Top Tier gasoline, Roasters Cafe coffee and cappuccino, fresh Dashboard Diner sandwiches and a variety of drinks, snacks and convenience items.