Rutter’s, which has won Mystery Shop four times since 2017, fell short this year from the title, finishing third.
What keeps Rutter’s routinely near the top in this contest, however, has a lot to do with the York, Pennsylvania-based company’s culture.
Chris Hartman, vice president of fuels, marketing and development at Rutter’s, said the company culture is believing in what it does and believing in being No. 1. “And that culture feeds down into our operations team and making sure that everyone’s following their different checklists, talking to and taking care of the customers,” he said.
Hartman said upper management visits stores and talks with employees and to those in operations.
- Rutter’s is No. 79 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
“That closeness is what I think helps us continue to be consistent,” he said. “And we have Jere Matthews, who’s our vice president of operations. He’s been with us for 47 years. That continuity of employees and promoting from within drives that they’re culturalized in our environment, they get promoted.”
Elsewhere, he said, Suzanne Cramer has been at Rutter’s for more than 12 years. She began in the marketing department, he said, “but we realized her talents would be even better utilized working in a different area.”
Thus, in 2016, she became director of human resources, and in 2020, after showing skills as an executive leader, was promoted to vice president of human resources.
Adding a bar, gaming lounge
Part of Rutter’s culture includes being fun and innovative, such as being one of the first c-store store chains to have a bar and gaming lounge for customers 21 and older. The company in spring opened two 14,000-square-foot bar and lounge spaces, in Johnstown and Milton, Pennsylvania, and five more are under construction. The sports bar and c-store concept features adult beverages.
“Our employees love being the ones at the forefront of the industry,” he said.
Rutter’s also offers what Hartman said is one of the highest wages in the industry: a starting salary of $18.
“We moved up our starting wage over several years, beginning during the pandemic,” he said, adding that $18 hourly “reflects our commitment to all our people. The results have been great, including the lowest turnover in our company’s history.”
Employee flexibility
This commitment is reflected in the revealed audit portion of Mystery Shop, where Rutter’s scored 99.5% for employees.
In the related Mystery Shop area of cashiers being dressed in a company uniform, Rutter’s tied for second with a score of 98.8%.
Hartman said that while uniforms are necessary, Rutter’s likes to give employees options on what they can wear.
“Our employees are the customer-facing piece of our business, so we want them to dress well to give off a great experience for our customers visually along with everything else that they do so well,” he said, adding that employees offer feedback on uniforms—and other areas.
“Each year we create a different T-shirt that our employees get,” Hartman said. “Maybe it’ll have something that’s distinct for a certain year or maybe it’ll have something new that we’re doing. That’s part of the fun we have, too.”
He adds that there are several uniform options, including branded polos, T-shirts, long-sleeve shirts and sweaters.
Dairy, sandwich coolers score high
Elsewhere in the revealed audit, Rutter’s placed second in dairy cooler with a score of 96.8%. Hartman said Rutter’s started as a dairy business in 1921 as Rutter’s Bros. Dairy. Hartman’s great-grandfather George Rutter and his brother Bud started the company.
In sandwich cooler, Rutter’s finished third with a score of 94.4%. Managing a sandwich cooler is examining and being able to provide what customers want—and balancing that with the company’s made-to-order sandwiches, Hartman said. It’s important to have the cooler well stocked because it can be an impulse buy for customers.
“So, we manage that by offering variety for customers looking for something not warm but cool, but they’re not maybe willing to wait for the made-to-order [item],” he said.
Meanwhile, Rutter’s can use the made-to-order area to offer a “much wider variety of products and satisfy a lot of customers that way as well,” he said.
Rutter’s also references data and tweaks offerings—and introduces new items to the grab-and-go area multiple times a year.
“Let’s put it in there and see how it does,” Hartman said.
To help give customers the food they want, Rutter’s offers Made For You options at its kiosks. “If we see unique combinations moving at high volumes, we will evaluate making it a Rutter’s staple on the menu,” Hartman said.
He adds, “There’s a lot of options, a lot of things we can test in the sandwich cooler to get that bigger group of people to see the product versus just doing it on made to order or just doing it into in the in the open-air cooler.”
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