Scott Scharfenberg, human resources director for Circle K, said the fresh menu can complicate the preparation process, requiring more attention to detail.
“When you’re making fresh pizza and fresh dough, you’re adding levels of complications and this brings upon the heighted awareness,” he said. “The more items you have, the more complicated this becomes.”
Scharfenberg also noted the fresh menu’s benefits from a human-resource standpoint, as the increased kitchen workload opens more job opportunities. “The fresh offerings staff three or four additional employees that work in those areas, so it’s a win for our employee basis,” he said.
When asked to give advice to c-store operators wanting to implement or change a foodservice program, Dalesandro praised consumer feedback as the starting point.
“Listen to your customers; they’ll tell you what they want,” he said. “When you put your product out there, customer demand will tell you if it resonates. We hit a home run with our products based off what we’ve been told. They [consumers] keep coming back, which tells us we’ve done [it] right.”