Luxurious chairs and tables, some even set up with smart TVs, welcome customers. A fireplace throws off warmth. Massive windows bathe everyone in natural light. Families share a full meal on one end, and executives get work done via free Wi-Fi over a cup of coffee on the other.
This is no high-end coffee shop or boutique café. This is our channel. This is Totally Tommy (pictured on this spread), the newest offering from Quality Car Wash. (See slideshow below of Totally Tommy and other c-store retailers that are embracing the "stay awhile concept.)
Mandi Essenburg Brower, general manager of the Holland, Mich.-based retailer, fondly recalls a customer coming into the 5,000-square-foot location and proclaiming, “Now this is what a convenience store should look like.”
It’s a far cry from the historical concept of a c-store, focused on getting the customers in and out as quickly as possible.
“When we built our first big store, my dad looked at me and went, ‘Are you crazy?!’ ” says Michael Newman, owner and executive vice president of the family-run NOCO Energy Corp., Tonawanda, N.Y.
“Sometimes the whole name of our industry is a blessing and curse,” says Mike Lawshe, president and CEO of Paragon Solutions, Fort Worth, Texas. “It started with getting them in, getting them out. How can we make room for the next person in line? While that’s still important and a hallmark of our industry, there’s a whole other group of customers. The more we get into the foodservice side, the more we have to understand that they’re the same customers with different motivations and needs, at a different time of day.”
It’s a reflection of an evolution—not just of the convenience channel, but of the modern consumer. “I want it all and I want it now” has become a mantra that multiple channels are responding to, whether it’s big-box stores such as Walmart and Target exploring small, streamlined formats, dollar stores expanding their value to tobacco and beer consumers or grocery retailers such as Whole Foods bringing in restaurant-style seating and bar service.
Many retailers believe c-stores are well situated to meet a multitude of consumers’ needs, including what sociologist Ray Oldenburg dubbed the “third place,” a public gathering space outside of home and work.
“We’re doing work to better understand our consumer’s need today—as well as the future state of that need—so that we can best bring the store to the consumer,” says Howard Curtis, director of marketing and CRM for Mapco Express Inc., Brentwood, Tenn. “True convenience puts time back in your day.”
By the historic definition, “putting time back in your day” means fast, convenient transactions. Today, the definition is shifting from time management to personal meaning. It means enhancing a person’s day by offering the opportunity to enjoy a quality coffee or meal while visiting with friends or surfing the Web, at the same spot where you can fill up on gas, wash the car and grab a 6-pack of beer or 2-liter of soda to take home.
Take RaceTrac Petroleum Inc. The Atlanta-based retailer has committed not only to an expanded foodservice program (which won the company a 2015 FARE Leaders in Foodservice Award), but also to a remodel of all of its locations to include indoor and outdoor seating, free Wi-Fi and proprietary Swirl World frozen-yogurt bars.
“Our mission is to make people’s lives simpler and more enjoyable,” says Robby Posener, RaceTrac’s vice president of merchandising, marketing and design. “The new layout delivers on this mission.”
Can the c-store channel really hope to compete with the Starbucks and Paneras of the world as a destination for hanging out?
What would prompt retailers to commit to such a drastic departure from the grab-and-go model that has defined the channel?
Here’s a look at the factors driving this shift and the keys for succeeding with what we at CSP have dubbed the “Stay Awhile” phenomenon.
Core Changes
Why would retailers rethink the in-and-out model? A major driver is that core c-store categories are not what they were. It’s hardly a new story—sales and margins on gas and cigarettes no longer drive a business.
Consider gasoline. Official numbers show the United States hit its peak in gasoline consumption, using 9.29 million barrels per day (BPD), in 2007. Since then, demand has fallen. It’s far from a temporary side effect of the recession: The Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts demand will plummet 24% from 2012 to 2040 thanks in part to baby boomers aging into their retirement years and millennials’ historic disinterest in driving. The U.S. PIRG Educational Fund reports the percentage of 16- to 24-year-olds with a license has fallen to the lowest level since 1963.
By expanding their definitions beyond gas, retailers such as Quality Car Wash are preparing themselves for a market in which gas is not a daily, or even weekly, need.
“They don’t necessarily need gas every time they come here,” Brower says of her shoppers. “[But] they’re coming more often.”
NOCO faced a serious conundrum: how to attract consumers for more than just cigarettes in a high state-excise-tax environment blanketed with Native American reservations offering tax-free cigarettes. Newman believed NOCO could not survive with cigarettes accounting for 60% of its in-store sales. Today’s seating and foodservice-centered stores still sell plenty of cigarettes, but now they account for only 30% of sales.
“This new model is aimed to help offset the challenges we saw in our strategic planning years ago,” he says. “We knew it was coming.”
Jim Fisher, CEO of IMST Corp., a Houston-based retail sales analysis firm, describes the “stay awhile” model as part of the next phase in the industry’s evolution. “[It’s] the transition from oil jobber to marketer to retailer—retailer meaning we’re not only interested in fuel, but also interested equally with all of our profit centers,” he says. “Now that’s moved into food. It’s the aggressive, progressive, visionary companies that see this and have embraced it.”
Blurring Lines
Another catchphrase is driving this “stay awhile” movement: channel blurring. “You’ve got drug stores as the female convenience stores, dollar chains selling cigarettes, mass retailers scaling footprints down to compete with convenience, grocery stores selling fuel,” says Mapco’s Curtis. “Now we’ve even got technology companies testing delivering convenience items.”
Fran Duskiewicz, former president and CEO of Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes, Canastota, N.Y. (sold to San Antonio-based CST Brands/CrossAmerica Partners last year), says the company’s former leader saw this shift coming.
“[John MacDougall] honestly believed that our competition was anyone out there who had a cash register,” Duskiewicz says. “It’s not the c-store down the street—it’s the supermarket, Subway or McDonald’s.”
“We’re in an omnichannel environment where consumers can get anything from anywhere,” Curtis says. “The traditional convenience model of having a ton of locations at brick and mortar was once a great model. In the future, we’ve got to look elsewhere.”
Neil Stern, senior partner and a retail analyst for McMillanDoolittle LLP, Chicago, says success in this omnichannel environment comes down to branding—especially when establishing retail locations as destinations for having a seat.
“Hanging out at Whole Foods or Nordstrom is different from J.C. Penney,” Stern says. “The brand has to be able to support that kind of proposition. Some brands are transactional, commodity-driven.”
And like J.C. Penney, convenience stores are facing an uphill battle against the Whole Foods and the Nordstroms of the world.
“There’s a stigma with hanging out at a convenience store,” says Stern.
Several operators agree that this stigma must be confronted if the channel is going to thrive in a world of channel blurring.
“The space is changing and evolving,” Curtis says. “We as a channel, we as a company, need to really understand what those consumers’ true convenience needs are.”
CONTINUED: Grab & Go vs. Stay Awhile
A Tale of Two Trends
Food, says Curtis, is absolutely “one of those true convenience needs—and doing it well can be a key differentiator of why consumers choose us.”
The increased interest in foodservice in the c-store channel and the “stay awhile” trend are almost intrinsically linked.
“When you’re heavy into foodservice, you have to have seating,” says Duskiewicz. “You’re not going to buy a Reuben sandwich and eat it while driving. It’ll end up in your lap.”
“When someone comes in and buys a fresh sandwich and there’s no place to eat it, that’s not classy,” says Jim Cox, retailer development manager for Houston-based CITGO. “It’s a mixed message. You’ve got a high-quality product … but you’re telling them they have to eat it someplace else.”
Of all the draws that could foster a “stay awhile” mindset among consumers, a more sophisticated foodservice offer is probably the most compelling. As Curtis says, “a store can look and feel great, but it doesn’t matter if you sit down and have an anemic experience with the food or beverage.”
As such, a high-quality food and beverage program can serve as a natural bridge for establishing stores as a hangout destination.
Although Nice N Easy catered to both grab-and-go and dine-in consumers, Duskiewicz says, the chain developed a dedicated group of working-class customers who would visit on a midmorning break or come for lunch.
“You become a destination for the working man, but also anyone who has time to get away to sit and enjoy,” he says. “When you couple that with Wi-Fi, you can come in, sit down, order lunch, fire up an iPad or laptop
and get some things done while you’re eating—which is not necessarily possible while on the road.”
All of which can better position the convenience channel as a viable competitor of established “third place” retailers such as Starbucks. (See sidebar.)
“We’re learning that if you’re going to be in the restaurant business, you have to be in the restaurant business,” says Brower of Quality Car Wash. “Bringing the seating area into the stores really puts you in that business, vs. being a snack center that serves some food.”
Expanding Demographics
Still, many retailers listed demographics as the biggest driver behind “stay awhile”—namely, that seating and hangout-type spaces appeal to a number of high-spending demographics who haven’t traditionally shopped c-stores, including:
Youth: When Centric Brand Anthropology surveyed 100 millennials on what else they’d like to see in convenience stores, 10% listed more seating as a top priority.
“This was remarkable because the question we asked was open-ended; they weren’t just picking a response from a set of options,” says Kirk Cornell, director of research and innovation for the Seattle-based research firm. “We see this as a willingness to stick around and not be just in and out in shopping at c-stores.”
In fact, millennials might be more interested in sticking around at c-stores than at QSRs. Research firm NPD Group’s annual “Eating Patterns in America” study showed c-stores accounted for 11.1% of millennial food and beverage stops in 2014 (up from 7.7% in 2006); fast-casual restaurants accounted for 6.1% in 2014 (vs. 3.1% in 2006).
“Clearly, convenience stores on the whole are doing a better job of meeting meal needs for the younger folks,” Curtis says. “That’s a great trend we hope to capture.”
And it’s not only millennials. Newman says the milkshake machines NOCO has installed in its new locations are drawing in the teens to 21-year-olds who make up Gen Z.
Women: When NOCO planned its new store formats, it wasn’t younger shoppers the upstate New York retailer was after. To get more women into the company’s stores, Newman’s team installed larger windows as a way of showing off a brightly lit store that customers can see from the pump.
At Quality Car Wash, family-friendly seating options paired with a high-quality foodservice program have been key differentiators for time-strapped mothers who may normally just pick up McDonald’s, says Brower. “We’ve created an experience for them,” she says. “It’s like a restaurant with everything else they need to do: get a car wash, fill up gas, all that.”
Professionals: The demographic Newman says he’s most surprised to see is the older white-collar professional who has shown up, both for a meal and a meeting space for business. “Not only are we meeting what millennials are demanding, but because of the decent, better-for-you foods, we are getting an older clientele as well,” he says. “It’s absolutely expanding our consumer base.”
CONTINUED: Returns on Investment
Returns on Investment
Let’s be honest: All the factors in the world don’t make much of a difference if there’s not a solid return on the costly time and money investment of transforming your average gas station into a hangout destination.
For retailers that have been in the “stay awhile” game for some time, those investments are paying off. Duskiewicz describes the ROI for Nice N Easy stores as “tremendous,” and Newman says locations with seating are boasting higher sales than any other NOCO sites.
“The question is, are the expenses of this format eating up the margin created by those additional sales?” Newman says. “On a dollar-for-dollar [basis], no; there’s still more margin delivered.”
There are a few reasons why these hangout stores are raking in more profits. Cox of CITGO describes one of the first times he observed customers hanging out at his locations:
They’d sit down with a coffee and a doughnut, but if they stayed for more than 30 minutes, most got up to buy something else.
“That’s what Starbucks knows,” he says. “People using stores as a third place are going to make multiple purchases.”
And stores with seating are doing more than attracting a higher-spending consumer—they’re also fostering a more loyal consumer.
“Customers can go to any corner and get gas or c-store items,” Brower says. “They come [here] for the experience.”
Part of it is the tactile stuff: high-end tables and chairs, the Wi-Fi, the ambiance. But stores that cater to keeping customers around also benefit from greater employee interactions, something Cornell of Centric Brand Anthropology says is particularly important to millennials.
“In (our) interviews, several millennials talked a lot about building community, both online and, distinctly, offline with ‘real people,’ ” he says.
Posener of RaceTrac agrees: “We believe our people are our competitive advantage, so it is possible that spending more time in our stores generates more loyal [customers]. And if spending more time in the store results in additional purchases, then that is an added bonus!”
How to Succeed
Understanding what drives “stay awhile” is only part of the challenge. There’s a difference between offering seating and breeding an experience.
“It’s going to take time for consumers to get there,” says Mapco’s Curtis. “They’re trying to overcome years of experience getting in and out of stores as quickly as possible.”
But the convenience industry is hardly one to back down from a fight. As such, here are what retailers and analysts listed as some of the key factors (and challenges) for succeeding with “stay awhile”:
Parking: A store’s geographic location does not determine its success with foodservice or, by extension, its ability to support a longer shopping occasion, says Fisher of IMST. Rather, it begins with the operator.
“The really good, strong operational companies have proven that you don’t have to be on a corner; you need to have the right characteristics in that market, the right factors,” says Fisher. This includes having a fully accessible site with no obstacles.
The site design—especially parking—is also a critical component.
“If you are going to have extended times, you will need additional areas for people to park and have a leisurely experience without thinking about the parking,” says Fisher. This is why QuikTrip’s Gen3 and Wawa’s newest formats are designed with side and rear entrances, and parking around the building.
“When the c-store customer and fuel customer dominates the front, hopefully the foodservice customers will be at the alternative/optional entrances,” he says.
What’s the right number of parking spaces? Fisher says this is determined by the number of seats in the foodservice area, as well as how fast tables turn and the anticipated meal prep time. The quicker the turn, the fewer seats needed and amount of parking required.
“It goes back to driving principles in c-stores for years: The longer they’re inside, the higher the transaction,” says Fisher. IMST’s formula allots 70% to 80% of the number of seats to parking spaces.
Getting the parking right could help determine the long-term success of a foodservice program, says Lawshe of Paragon.
“The No. 1 constrictor is the number of parking spaces you have,” Lawshe says. “If you’re going to offer seating, you’ve extended that linger factor significantly. If you only have 10 parking spaces out front, you’re kind of screwing yourself. Between employees and suppliers, there’s no parking for customers. And it starts being a detriment instead of an asset.”
Newman of NOCO says parking is “absolutely a challenge” at his stores, “particularly when people park right in front of the store and then stay for the sit-down service.”
Another problem: people who park at the pumps and walk into the store to shop. “That happened even before we got in the food business, but it’s particularly problematic for our busier, large-format stores,” he says. “We’re trying to figure it out, adding more parking when we can. I’d definitely say that’s our biggest challenge: moving people in and out of the spaces.”
Other factors can affect parking:
Foodservice sales: What are the projected food sales? For a Wendy’s doing $1.7 million annually in food sales, 60 to 80 seats might make sense, says Lawshe. For a Subway at $350,000 to $450,000 annually, 18 seats could be sufficient.
Drive-thru: This feature has a big effect on seating and parking requirements. A fast feeder may conceivably push 70% of its sales through its drive-thru, which would reduce indoor seating requirements greatly, says Lawshe. And if c-stores want to be considered by consumers and compete with fast feeders, they must consider a drive-thru, he contends.
“If the big guys are doing 70% to 80% [of sales] through the drive-thru and you don’t offer one, what you’re saying is, ‘I’m going to only compete for 20% to 30% of the time,’ ” he says.
The drive-thru also helps an operator cater to a grab-and-go crowd and those interested in hanging out. “For as many people who want to sit and linger, there’s the same number who want out as fast as possible,” Stern says. “With drive-thrus and more convenience, you can create balance. What Starbucks intuitively understands is that a lot of the time, that’s the same person.”
Also important in serving both in-and-out and “stay awhile” customers is providing adequate and preferably separate spots for paying.
“It destroys everything when you have eight people running around in the back preparing food, but only one serving customers at the cash register,” Fisher says.
Touch-screen technology can fill a role for foodservice customers, providing not only a point of sale but also a source of customization that does not create a backlog in the checkout line.
“Are we making it as easy as we can for the foodservice and c-store customers so we don’t have conflict?” Fisher says.
Setting the Scene
Encouraging customers to eat in when they could take out starts, of course, with a quality foodservice program. It also requires a spot for getting comfortable, which can be tough under tight space constraints.
Lawshe encourages retailers to think like customers. Is the lighting too harsh? Are there any objectionable sounds nearby, such as a noisy compressor from the ice-cream freezer turning on and off?
Quality Car Wash has made a big effort to set the scene—in particular, a coffee shop—at a new store that also hosts a Tim Hortons.
“We’ve created a nice separation in the new store,” Brower says. “The roof elevation changes. The lighting is a little bit warmer, and there are chandeliers overhead. We carpeted that area and put in a stone wall to give it a real homey, living-room feel, [plus we added] a fireplace. We created a perimeter so you really don’t think you’re in a gas station—you’re in a coffee shop.”
Mapco Express also focuses on creating an unexpected ambience. “It challenges that paradigm. Am I in a convenience store, an urban market or a coffee shop?” says Curtis. “That’s what we want to happen—that unexpected confusion. Because it usually transitions to, ‘Wow, this is cool and different.’ ”
Choosing the right type and mix of seating is an art and a science. Lawshe recommends a mix of heights and types, depending on the space available.
“When designing an area, we will have regular seating, bar-height seating, up against windows,” he says. “Sometimes we will [use] settees to create a separation.
“When you can only offer one option, you’re limiting the selection you can offer. At the good fast casuals, there’s a mixture.”
At Quality Car Wash, there are different table sizes to suit all customers’ needs, ranging from small tables for one to three people to bigger tables set near TVs for larger groups. “We left the furniture very versatile, so if it’s a really big group, they can move the tables and chairs around,” Brower says. “We try to meet multiple needs, rather than a one size fits all.”
Lawshe is also a big proponent of outdoor seating—preferably adjacent to the indoor seating—because it makes an architectural statement that the retailer is in the food business.
On a more practical level, it increases the ability to seat more patrons without taking up space inside the store. And if done right, outdoor seating can also help a retailer meet local municipalities’ landscaping requirements.
Finally, when positioning the seating, consider what customers will look at as they sit down to a meal. It shouldn’t be a garbage bin or the posteriors of customers walking through the store. A view of the parking lot could be, though, because some customers like to keep an eye on their vehicle.
“To get them to linger longer, you’ve got to broaden your scope and the customer bases you’re pursuing,” says Lawshe. “If you’re going to compete, you better compete from the design perspective at that level, not just kicking it up a notch. Because let’s face it: We’re behind the curve. We need to kick it up six notches just to get in the ballpark.”
No Space? No Problem
Even if a retailer successfully runs a hangout location, that doesn’t mean it will work across a retail network of multiple formats.
“The traffic flow of the property has to allow for the footprint,” says Newman. “We don’t want to build something too big that chokes up the traffic. Customers are very sensitive to all that.”
And while it may not be easy to retrofit a small-box store to cater to a hangout-driven consumer, a cozy environment is still a possibility.
“You can take some of that experience and bring it to a smaller store,” says Brower of Quality Car Wash. “We won’t be able to exactly replicate the larger stores, but we’ll be able to bring some of the same elements in.”
Newman says NOCO has applied this concept of scaling down new formats to work in smaller locations for both remodels and new builds.
“Even when we don’t have the land to build a bigger store, we’ll go back in and remodel to bring a lot of the amenities we want to run a better store,” he says. “It’s a challenge, but we’re working on it.”
Ultimately, succeeding as a third place comes down to commitment—a commitment to the future. According to Lawshe, it’s not a question of if or how c-stores can succeed as a viable third-place option, but when.
“This is the direction the industry is going as it goes more into foodservice,” he says. “We have to start rethinking and re-educating employees to meet the needs of customers, because those needs are changing. You can’t force the market; the market will force you."
CONTINUED: Becoming Famous for Coffee
On the Path to ‘Famous for Coffee’?
The role of coffee in the convenience channel continues to evolve.
“A high-quality, gold-standard cup of coffee is important if a convenience operator wants to be famous for their coffee,” says Jim Cox of CITGO, who is convinced of coffee’s draw as a long-term traffic driver.
And from coffee comes indoor seating, he points out: “To be famous for coffee, you have to provide at least a certain amount of seating. It’s a customer-service issue.”
Joe Chiovera, president of consultancy XS Foodservice, Dallas, sees coffee as an all-too-important destination item, because most c-store customers are “thirst first” shoppers. “A majority of our shoppers come in the morning,” when coffee is king, he says. “The incidence level of people spending at that time is [also] high.” So if people are coming in for coffee, Chiovera says, the opportunity for additional foodservice sales—breakfast sandwiches, fresh fruit, muffins, etc.—is high.
But like others, Chiovera believes coffee remains a grab-and-go item for c-store shoppers rather than a draw that necessitates seating.
Fran Duskiewicz, formerly of Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes, agrees, saying c-store coffee customers are on their way to somewhere else: “That’s why vehicles have multiple cup holders.”
That said, Duskiewicz did have stores where people congregated in the evening or midmorning for coffee and a snack or a bakery item. “I don’t think that’s a driving force with sit-down eating,” he says. “You’re not getting extra sales from someone coming in and eating a muffin. It’s not quite the same as eating [a full meal].”
A Third-Place Conversation
The concept of a “third place” has been part of the retail vernacular for years, describing a public alternative space to home and work where people can relax and reconnect. It has been embraced by operators such as Starbucks and Whole Foods, and even clothing and eyeglasses chains.
With c-stores flirting with becoming a third place, CSP reached out to the sociologist who first coined the phrase in the late 1990s. In his book, “The Great Good Place,” Ray Oldenburg, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of West Florida, Pensacola, Fla., said third places “host the regular, voluntary, informal and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.”
While he considers coffeehouses, cafés and pubs great third places, he does not dismiss the possibility that a c-store could fit the bill. But based on his local old-school gas station, he is skeptical.
“It’s a ‘grab-and-go’ place, one employee, sometimes a short line to pay for one’s purchase,” Oldenburg says. “Never heard any sociable conversation. Parking is scarce and that, too, encourages a quick ‘in and out.’ ”
However, he says, “That it’s being considered gives me good feelings. The idea is very much customer-oriented.”
The key, Oldenburg says, is setting up a space conducive to conversation. He cites a local Krispy Kreme doughnut shop as an example: “The original structure had a U-shaped counter around which cushioned stools were placed, and that was all the seating available. It was a fun place to visit as you never knew who you’d be talking to.”
Then in 2004, Hurricane Ivan destroyed the restaurant, requiring a rebuild. But the new design destroyed conversation. “The only seating now is at very small tables and people talk only to those they came in with,” he says. “The great majority of customers stand in line, buy doughnuts and leave. The interesting talk has been eliminated. There are no characters there anymore.”
Creating third places—whether in a c-store, doughnut shop, coffee shop or a central town square—is more important than ever, Oldenburg says. That’s because technology and social networking has, in its own way, isolated people.
“We once enjoyed a robust public life, and most of it has disappeared,” says Oldenburg. “All the electronic networking doesn’t bring community back, and it leaves associational choices to the individual and, as individuals, we opt for people like ourselves. When we choose a place rather than a person, we get diversity and develop more fully as human beings.”
And what is Oldenburg’s favorite third place? A local Steak ’n Shake. “But just for breakfast,” he says, “and I like the demographics.”
CONTINUED: C-Store Coffee Stats
Logistical Challenges
Parking and space are far from the only hurdles for retailers to overcome in creating a third place. Other concerns include:
Loitering
“Some stores in residential areas get a ‘kid problem’ we had to be sensitive to,” says Fran Duskiewicz, formerly of Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes. “You don’t want to chase but have to be clear on what the rules are.”
Manpower and training
“The challenge of offering expanded seating is the labor involved,” says Robby Posener of RaceTrac. “Instead of having one or two associates running the cashwrap and tidying up the store, the larger store size and seating requires additional labor to ensure the area remains clean and fully stocked.”
Lost product
“A lot of times, [customers] pay for everything and get their food,” Duskiewicz says. “After they sit down, you lose track of them. They can grab chips or soda [without paying] and you won’t know it.”
Awareness
“Awareness is our greatest challenge,” says Howard Curtis of Mapco. “We’re not in the Northeast, where some of the brands have had roots in food and grocery. We’re a gas station that needs to be looked at as a true, viable eating destination.”
C-Store Coffee Stats
Though limited statistics exist for the convenience customer who prefers grab and go, “stay awhile” or some combination of both, other research points to c-store opportunities with coffee and the potential to pull millennials away from competing channels. The charts below show where c-stores stand among other channels for coffee consumed away from home.
CONTINUED: Measuring Visits
Measuring the Visit
CSP partnered with GasBuddy, Gaithersberg. Md., to survey users of its gasoline price app about their c-store shopping habits.
The sample size of more than 110,000 responses skews male, with the bulk of respondents 25 to 64 years of age, making less than $100,000.
One interesting finding: The most popular factor that determines the length of the consumer’s c-store visit was the presence of an attractive food and/or beverage offer, and the most popular reason for a visit inside the store was to buy food or a beverage.
Here's a collection of other insights from the survey:
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