Nouria is the 2025 CSP Intouch Insight Mystery Shop winner, taking home an overall score of 97.62% in its fourth year participating in the audit, which evaluates participating convenience-store chains' cleanliness, employees and more. The winner and two runners up were announced Wednesday at CSP’s Outlook Leadership conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
While Nouria, which also won in 2024, received the first-place score, Pleasanton, California-based ExtraMile came in second, with a score of 96.84%, and York, Pennsylvania-based Rutter’s received the third-place score of 96.53%. Joe Hamza (pictured above), Nouria's chief operating officer, reacts as his convenience-store chain is named the 2025 Mystery Shop winner.
- ExtraMile is No. 8, Nouria is No. 29 and Rutter’s is No. 79 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 U.S. c-store chains by store count.
The Mystery Shop audit assesses convenience-store chains with two types of studies: a revealed audit, which accounts for 60%, and a covert audit, which accounts for 40%. A total of 1,000 audits were conducted between April 30 and June 2.
The annual study is completed by Intouch Insight, Ottawa, Ontario, a customer experience solutions and mystery shopping company that specializes in helping multi-location brands achieve operational excellence, in partnership with CSP.
Cameron Watt, president and CEO of Intouch Insight, said, “In this year’s Mystery Shop and audit program, the top-scoring brands were the ones that prioritized spotless interiors and well-maintained exteriors. 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.”
The audit form comprised 34 questions within 10 sections: coffee, dairy cooler, employees, exterior, fountain drinks, interior, loyalty program, pump island, restrooms and sandwich cooler.
Nouria’s top categories
Worcester, Massachusetts-based Nouria stood out with a revealed audit score above 98% in seven categories.
In the revealed audit, Nouria had the best score among the 10 chains that participated in pump island, exterior, interior, dairy cooler, fountain drinks, coffee and sandwich cooler.
Nouria earned its best score, 99.5%, in two categories: coffee and employees. Considerations in coffee are a clean area, a fully stocked area, equipment working, all types of coffee displayed available to buy, and the availability of flavor shots and/or creams. Employee considerations are if all on-duty employees are wearing uniforms and if they are well groomed.
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. It has 319 total stores.
The maintenance of all its 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.
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.
The scores and data shared here are just a portion of the 2025 Mystery Shop findings. Read more of CSP’s Mystery Shop coverage in the September magazine and listen to CSP's upcoming podcasts with Nouria, ExtraMile and Rutter’s.
Click here to read about last year’s results.
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