If a convenience-store employee is preparing a food item without wearing the required protective hat or gloves, an alert can be sent to remedy the situation immediately thanks to the eye of a camera in the foodservice area.
“Many companies already have security cameras, and wireless cameras that don’t go through the security camera system are pretty inexpensive,” said Myra Kressner, president of Kressner Strategy Group, Bayside, New York, and co-founder of the Vision Group Network, Austin, Texas.
SafetyCulture, whose U.S. headquarters is in Kansas City, Missouri, is one company offering products such as this. The technology is a mobile-first operations platform that allows teams to perform checks such as the one above, as well as report issues, capture data and communicate fluidly. Austin, Texas-based SparkCognition’s Visual AI Advisor improves safety, security, visual inspection, productivity and situational awareness, according to the company’s website.
“Convenience retailers are using cameras and experimenting with computer vision for their foodservice operations,” Kressner said.
Point of Sale
Elsewhere in foodservice technology, Toast point-of-sale (POS) software is being embraced by Steve Morris, president, St. Paul, Minnesota-based Retail Management Inc. (RMI), which manages convenience stores for investor groups and individuals. RMI uses the Toast platform (pictured), whose capabilities include getting customers who order ahead a fresher plated lunch. RMI uses the software, which Morris said is ideal for on-the-go truckers and others, for made-to-order offerings at c-stores and a sit-down restaurant it operates.
Time is critical for many customers, and Morris wants to ensure they can offer a good meal that’s “a little bit more than standard convenience-store fare but not fast food and the typical QSR [quick-service restaurant] offerings.”
Promotional materials for one of their clients, Miss Mamie’s, a deli with locations in c-stores in Breaux Bridge and Duson, Louisiana, include a QR code linked to the POS system that, when scanned, takes a customer to the Toast website where they can order ahead and time their pickup so the food is as fresh as possible.
“These are truckers, and they’re on a schedule,” Morris said. “They want that plated lunch, which is a great value for them and a good meal.” But they don’t have the time to wait, which is why the ability to order ahead makes all the difference.
“People are experimenting with other ways to rethermalize frozen food or heat food all together.”
Morris wants an entree like Shrimp Etouffee made to order rather than the less-fresh ready to go in a bucket. The Toast system enabled them to “make that quicker without having to make it earlier and saddle the store with the waste on a bad [sales] day.”
The Toast POS also provides a wealth of sales and labor data at a reasonable price, Morris said.
“I know exactly how many bottles of Coca-Cola I sell and how many packs of cigarettes and what brand,” Morris said. “I can have full menu and waste controls. I can use the labor models and partner with third-party food-delivery apps or Google food ordering.”
One c-store with which RMI works is part of the Corral City RV Park in Corral City, Texas. Jeffery Dunn, manager of the RV park, said that in the last year they set up a Toast POS system, online ordering and a self-service ordering kiosk.
The implementation of these three technological options gives Dunn more data that improves the running of the c-store—and gives customers a trio of food-ordering options. Data he receives includes the time it takes from when a food order is placed to when the customer receives it, enabling Dunn to see areas where they need to improve service.
“It has been a great convenience for people,” Dunn said of online ordering. The self-serve kiosk, along with QR-scanning capabilities, meanwhile, have helped eliminate long lines of customers ordering food.
“During the lunch-time rush, that line is significantly less,” he said, calling all the capabilities and offerings of the POS system a “game changer.”
C-Stores Late to the Game
At Lubbock, Texas-based Curby’s, Tony Sparks, who has been in the industry 27 years and runs the c-store with the title of “head of customer wow,” was less than complimentary of c-stores when it comes to being first to try new technology and equipment.
“I think they’re laggards to just about every trend that’s out there,” he said. “If something is happening, it usually happens in the grocery world or restaurants before it happens in c-stores.”
On the equipment side in the back of the house, Sparks said it’s all about rapid cook ovens, noting the quality and capabilities of these ovens has progressed a lot in the last three to five years. Curby’s has nine ovens, eight of which are some form of rapid heat, including rapid cook and electric convection from TurboChef. They also use a Blodgett combi oven.
60%: The approximate percentage of convenience stores that cannot afford the latest bean-to-cup and/or gourmet espresso equipment, according to Bill Nolan, partner at Business Accelerator Team, citing NACS data.
“People are experimenting with other ways to rethermalize frozen food or heat food all together,” he added, noting he has been seeing more customer-facing technology. “We have a pretty unique system in the sense that we’re heavy self-checkout on the inside.”
Curby’s implemented a way to prevent making the customer pay twice in one visit, once for their made-to-order food where it’s prepared and once for packaged items at checkout, he said.
“Instead of using a self-serve kiosk, you order through a person and get a ticket with a barcode, which you use at the self-checkout,” he said. “[Other] c-stores have self-checkout, but they don’t have it where you can order food and then without seeing another human being, just go finish your order at self-checkout.”
Sparks said critics would argue this opens the door for increased theft, which he doesn’t disagree with. “But we don’t see a lot theft,” he said. “We can track tickets and know how many weren’t finalized. It’s not a heavy number.”
Coffee Talk
Bill Nolan, a partner with the Business Accelerator Team, Phoenix, said there’s a disparity of the haves and have nots in coffee technology.
“All the large and mid-size c-store chains have migrated to the latest bean-to-cup and/or gourmet espresso equipment,” he said. “They have the volume or capital accounts to cover the expense of innovation.” However, he said, citing National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) data, this leaves “the other +/- 60%, which is 80,000 to 90,000 c-stores, which sell anywhere from 10 to 50 units per store day, trying to figure out how to invest in the latest equipment to stay relevant.”
The bottom line, Nolan said, it that innovation is wonderful but expensive.
“Whether it’s beverage or food equipment, or technology such as data software and rewards, not everyone will be able to participate at the same level,” he said. “This will continue to widen the gap between c-store classes, which I presume is driving much of the M&A [mergers and acquisition] activity around the country.”
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