LUBBOCK, Texas — At startup Curby’s Express Market, which opened its first c-store Feb. 1 in Lubbock, Texas, the team behind the new concept is blending the best of many convenience-retail models while focusing on craveable food and beverages offered fast and conveniently.
Curby’s forgoes fuel sales while embracing the extensive drink menu of Starbucks with limited indoor seating.
“Curby’s Express Market is a new category store, a place where consumers don’t have to make a choice between convenience and quality,” says Jessica Williams, founder and CEO of Louisville, Ky.-based consultancy Food Forward Thinking, who worked with Curby’s to “bring the menu to life.”
The menu at Curby’s is as eye-catching as its branding.
- Click here to see the results of CSP’s 2022 State of Foodservice Survey.
Williams joined the venture nearly two years ago, she says, when leadership at Curby’s, armed with research, presented an idea of what they wanted in terms of foodservice and branding.
“I stepped in to take a few ideas and offer creative recipes, source every product, every ingredient,” she says. “We figured out the best way to make it work with multiple equipment suppliers to source equipment, design the layout and create all the job aids and train employees.”
That menu includes kolaches, burritos, muffins and melts for breakfast; and pizza, salads, melts and sandwiches for lunch and later.
Value, Value, Value
Developing a new menu from scratch is about more than just good food. Williams says she wanted to emphasize value, and customers are responding positively.
“I think about value in three categories: quality value, price value and abundance value,” she says. “While price value (i.e., low price points) has traditionally been the focus for convenience marketing, this type of value is increasingly difficult to meet while maintaining quality. So retailers are shifting marketing to emphasize quality value and abundance value.”
And customers are not shying away from higher food prices “as long as they receive elevated quality food and plenty to eat,” she says.
“Foodservice is a category that a lot of smart people are trying to figure out. It’s a tough math problem to solve.”
However, customers are being lured by a growing number of foodservice options that appear increasingly similar. “C-store foodservice competition is literally anywhere that sells food: food trucks, groceries, restaurants, online,” Williams says.
Donna Hood Crecca, principal at CSP sister research firm Technomic, says the growth of foodservice sales at c-stores was gaining momentum before the pandemic. C-store foodservice sales were down 20% in 2020 but in 2021 rose nearly 28%. Technomic forecasts a nearly full pandemic recovery in c-stores this year with an estimated 9% or better gain.
Competition Ahead
Williams offers a concise alert to convenience retailers hoping to win at foodservice today: Competition is everywhere.
“C-store competition is anyone doing things more conveniently than you,” she says. “Consumers purchase food, beverages and general merchandise from big-box stores, online, specialty shops, grocery stores, restaurants, food trucks, local shops and from anyone who delivers. Therefore, convenience retailers must evolve to stay truly ‘convenient.’ ”
To win, c-store retailers should do more with what is working, she says.
She suggests c-stores retailers explore LTO flavors and pack sizes, cross-merchandise with complementary items and allow marketing funds from other categories to work for the food offer.
Wrong Turns
Conversely, one common mistake is to use labor shortages as an excuse to skimp on cleaning, Williams says.
“[Retailers] also use an unpredictable supply chain as an excuse to not bring in new items and update planograms and use high turnover as an excuse to let their foodservice program fade away,” she says.
Tony Sparks, who runs Curby’s with the title of “head of customer wow,” says, “Foodservice is a category that a lot of smart people are trying to figure out. It’s a tough math problem to solve.”