In this episode of “At Your Convenience,” CSP Executive Editor Hannah Hammond talks to Todd Fangman, senior food and dispensed beverage manager at the Dash In convenience-store chain.
The Wills Group Inc., La Plata, Maryland, owns the c-store chain, which has about 60 stores.
- The Wills Group is No. 120 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
Fangman shares his strategy behind Dash In’s menu and how he’s focusing on nailing core items this year, rather than adding more innovation.
“At Your Convenience” brings industry experts and analysts together with CSP editors to discuss the latest in c-store news and trends. From mergers and acquisitions to foodservice and technology, the podcast delivers the story straight to listeners in short-format episodes, perfect for the morning commute or a quick break at the office.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Hannah Hammond: What's your background in foodservice and how did you get started with Dash In?
Todd Fangman:I carried about every position there was in the restaurant industry. Starting when I was 15 years old, I was a dishwasher and moved my way through learning about the food and prepping and becoming a line cook. And then I went to University of Delaware for hotel restaurant management. I continued to work in restaurants all through college. And then when I graduated, I moved to the Northern Virginia area, and then I became a sous chef, executive chef, and then regional chef, and eventually into director of operations. I've been in the restaurant industry for a very long time now, over 25 years. And it was very interesting. I never really thought I would be in convenience, you know, just being in restaurants. But someone introduced me to Dash In, and I spoke with them, and they showed me their operation and their kitchen and what it was all about. And I was very impressed, and I was very happy to come on board and contribute here. I love it here.
Hammond: Could you tell me a little bit just about what Dash In is doing that's new in foodservice now?
Fangman: In the c-store world, or, you know, with c-store guests, what I think what they're really looking for now these days is an option where they can get the restaurant quality food. And then also we understand that, you know, they want to get that quickly and they also want that for a price that is not the same at restaurants. They would like it to be lesser of a price. We want to see if we can. It's not about going cheap. It's about offering value, right? It's, how can we give those restaurant quality ingredients of food and offer it at a price that our guests are looking for and get it to them quickly? It's something like our hand pressed burgers that we do in-house. Something that we do very well and we can put it out very quickly. But it's something that resonates with our guests and they know that they can come in and get that at that level of that quality, get it on a nice brioche bun if you will. It's awesome.
Hammond: How is Dash In working to bring some healthier offerings to its kitchen?
Fangman: When we create something in any category, where we like to go in our minds also is, can we create a vegetarian version of that? You know, what does vegetarian version of that look like? Whether it's a breakfast sandwich or of course we have salads. So we have that option to provide them. But aside just from the vegetarian options, we do provide wholesome ingredients, or high quality proteins. So if I said before, the burgers, right? We get those in raw, they come in fresh. We [make the patties] in house, and the same goes for our breakfast sausage. When you get those, those are made fresh and pressed in front of you, in front of the guests. And also, every breakfast sandwich, every add-on that is received at the restaurant, you get fresh cracked eggs.
Hammond: How do you then communicate that to the customers so they know that you're putting all this work behind the scenes?
Fangman: Our marketing team does a phenomenal job of doing this. When we come out with our promotions, there are multiple streams. We get it out there through social media. We have signage in our restaurants that point you in that direction of what, what we're looking to get out to the guests or what we want our guests to see or what they may not know that we're doing, and put it out there for them and invite them to come in and check us out.
Hammond: What new products are you looking to add or try out in 2025?
Fangman: I think this year it's going to be less about innovation. We're going to be more about nailing our core menu items. We're going to be more into implementing processes to execute at a high level as we grow. We're looking to expand into the North Carolina region and get outside of our current footprint. If we become better in how we operate today, we can operate at a high level in those markets as well. As we're doing that, we're looking to come up with creative ways to create value for our guests as well through promotional pricing, bundling. And then, yes, you could probably expect to see some innovation come through on the kiosk as well, sprinkled in through.
Hammond: As far as deciding what items you add to your menus, how do you decide what the right level of innovation is versus just focusing on the classics and not having too many things going on? How do you find that balance and determine what to add to your menus?
Fangman: Nail the core menu because the moment we get rid of something that the majority of our guests love, they're not going to be too happy with us. We have to really pay attention. That's why we have to look at our trends. We have to look at our sales trends. If it's something that's continued to sell and the sales levels don't really drop off, you can expect it to stick around. So we have an idea of how big our menu we want to get. At some point, we won't really be adding items unless something is coming off.
Hammond: You mentioned kiosks earlier. What kind of technology are you guys using in food service and in ordering?
Fangman: In the majority of our stores, and as we begin or continue to open stores, our main focus or our main avenue for ordering is through our self-service kiosk. At our 3.0 stores, which is our newest level, we do have team members in-house that can assist and direct them through it. On our kiosk is where we offer everything that we make to order. So that's where we offer our burgers, our breakfast sandwiches, for example, our side items, fries, tots and sweet potato fries. And you can order chips as well, house made chips. But we are also making a pivot to loyalty. So our loyalty program, we encourage guests to download our app and they can order online, and we partner with delivery groups, and they can order from the app and either pick it up in the store or they could have it delivered to their house.
Hammond: How do you guys ensure consistent quality across your various stores?
Fangman: We hold quarterly training sessions at our training sessions. We invite our store managers and our area managers over for a class where we focus on new items. We focus on revised items, things that may need a little bit of tweaking, possibly some items where consistency isn't quite there. It helps us also get through those items that we may have where we could operate at a higher level and just build on those core items aside from rolling out new items as well. But we also have invested in recipe adherence technology. So the stores can use those. Just pull it up and they take a look. They're able to see how it's made, what it's supposed to look like, the exact amount of ingredients that go within the recipes, the steps that it takes. We make it very intuitive for them to complete the task. And then also, you know, I don't ever want to underestimate the value of our area managers and the people who oversee our stores because they are able to get into the stores and really have their hands on the food and ensure the quality, do the quality checks, do some tastings, give feedback, refer to the job aides. And then we all communicate and they're also, they give feedback to me as well. And this is also part where we continue to strive with executing at a high level on the items that exist. It's not about rolling out an item that gets pushed out and we forget about it and it's never seen again. It’s just getting that feedback. Is there something that could work better for us? Could we execute it better? Is there a step that we're missing in the process and continually help what we're doing?
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