Inside RaceTrac’s Foodservice Program
By Brett Dworski on Feb. 25, 2020NEW ORLEANS — The RaceTrac convenience store on General De Gualle Drive in New Orleans was the second stop during this year’s Convenience Retailing University store tours. Once inside, attendees strolled through the 5,500 square-foot store delighted and excited, as if they were kids in a candy shop.
- Atlanta-based RaceTrac has more than 500 c-stores. It is No. 15on the Top 40 update to CSP’s 2019 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by number of retail outlets. CSP will release the complete 2020 list in June.
Among the standout amenities at this location was its foodservice program, which offers hot and cold made-to-order items as well as pastries, unique slushies, coffee and more. While the RaceTrac is open 24 hours a day, the hot food program runs from 4 a.m. through 10 p.m.
Here’s a look inside this RaceTrac’s foodservice program …
Pizza
Pizza is this store's top foodservice offer, representatives from the company told CSP during the tour. Varieties include cheese, pepperoni, sausage and pepperoni and a breakfast pizza. Customers can purchase individual pizza slices for $2.49 or a whole pizza for $7.99. With any purchase of a slice or a whole pizza, consumers can add a second individual slice for $1. Patrons can also call ahead of time to order a whole pizza at this location.
Roller grill
This RaceTrac offers a variety of items in its two roller grill cases, such as egg rolls, jalapeno cheese sausages, Monterey jack chicken Rollerbites, Cheddarwursts, Bratwursts, classic hot dogs and more. Each item is available for $1.69. As with the pizza, customers can add a second item for $1.
Hot display
The items in the hot display cases vary depending on the daypart. During breakfast, RaceTrac offers sausage, egg and cheese biscuit sandwiches; ham, egg and cheese croissants; and chicken biscuit sandwiches. For the afternoon and evening dayparts, RaceTrac offers beef and chicken enchiladas, hash browns, Texas kolaches, Angus cheeseburgers and Texas toast sausage melts. The store also has a toppings bar for its hot display and roller grill items, where consumers can add ketchup and mustard, onions, jalapeno peppers, nacho cheese and more.
Coffee
This RaceTrac has five touchscreen bean-to-cup coffee machines that serve hot and iced java. Coffee blends offered include regular, Guatemalan, 100% Colombian, dark roast, hazelnut and decaf. The store offers a variety of sugar, including white sugar, yellow sugar, pink sugar, raw sugar and green sugar. It also offers a variety of milk and creamers including hazelnut and French vanilla creamers, whole milk, almond milk and whipped cream. Customers can even add marshmallows to their coffee.
Pastries
Pastries offered in the bakery display case include old-fashioned doughnuts, glazed doughnuts, chocolate iced doughnuts, apple fritters and blueberry muffins. Doughnuts are available for $1.09 each, while other pastries are $1.69.
Frozen and dispensed beverages
RaceTrac has a rotating list of frozen slushie varieties that range from soda to candy flavors. The list comprises Classic Coke, Dr Pepper, Fanta Blue Raspberry, Frozen Sprite, Fanta Wild Cherry, Hawaiian Punch, Jarritos Mandarin, Jolly Rancher Watermelon, Jolly Rancher Sour Apple, Minute Maid Lemonade, Mountain Dew and Powerade Mountain Berry Blast.
On the fountain side, RaceTrac offers classics such as Coke and Dr Pepper, as well as soft drinks including Arizona Tea Arnold Palmer, Barq's Root Beer, Canada Dry Ginger Ale and Powerade Mountain Berry.
Frozen yogurt
RaceTrac’s Swirl World offers frozen yogurt, ice cream, sorbet and Italian ice in cones and ice creams in 12 flavors, including peanut butter fudge cookie, chocolate chip cookie dough, cookies ‘n’ cream, mint cookies ‘n’ cream and chocolate vanilla swirl. Patrons also have access to a toppings bar containing more than 20 options, such as crushed candy bars, gummy worms, chocolate chips, yogurt chips, cherries and more. RaceTrac also lists the calorie counts for the toppings.
Consumers can purchase a cake cone for $1.49, a waffle cone for $2.49, a regular cup for $2.49 and a large cup for $3.99.
Next year’s Convenience Retailing University will be held Feb. 23-24, 2021, in Orlando, Fla. Click here for more information.