When it comes to labor strategies for convenience-store operators, retention is key because it costs “less to keep an associate than to replace one,” said Alex Olympidis, president of operations for Family Express.
Speaking about how to maximize every labor dollar, at the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Show on Thursday in Chicago, Olympidis said “in the c-store industry, typical turnover is between 120% to 150%, which has a cost per separation of $4,000 to $6,000 per employee.”
At Family Express, which operates c-stores throughout northwest and central Indiana, turnover is less than industry levels at 40%, Olympidis said.
“Today we are at 36% companywide, and it’s worthy of lowering each and every day,” he said.
The Valparaiso, Indiana-based c-store chain has adopted a tenure-based wage structure that includes an hourly wage of $15 at start and $16 at 90 days.
With annual raises, “an hourly employee can make $20 an hour at year five,” he said.
Olympidis said the company’s tenure-based wage structure reduces early turnover and provides a “clear” path forward.
Scheduling tips
Another strategy that Family Express has implemented is the double-coverage philosophy. This includes one associate on the register while the second associate is cleaning, stocking or overseeing foodservice.
Conventional wisdom in this industry says faster is better, but Olympidis contends that this viewpoint is true up to a certain point.
“Sixty seconds waiting in line in the store that’s well stocked with clean restrooms would be better than waiting 30 seconds in line at a store that isn’t,” he said.
A final strategy Olympidis shared is the importance of who owns the schedule for the associates.
“Store managers should not make their own schedule,” he said.
Instead, Olympidis said that someone who is analyzing transaction counts, analyzing sales data and overall customer traffic of each individual store should be creating what the schedule should be.
“The store managers can simply then fill in the associates into those roles,” he said.
Investing in labor pays off
When it comes to maximizing gross profit dollars, Olympidis said it is helpful to sometimes have more labor.
Once every two weeks at Family Express there are “shine associates” at the store that are dedicated cleaning professionals that have sophisticated tools, he said.
Olympidis said this extra layer of labor allows these professionals to spend eight hours in one store and then move on to the next store without disrupting the associates.
- Family Express Corp. is No. 86 on CSP’s2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
The Valparaiso-based chain is investing $100 million in new-to-industry convenience stores, which includes a rollout of new stores across Indiana. Olympidis said that the company is also investing a great deal of time and effort in the next generation of store managers.
He said the company creates regularly scheduled communication between store managers and Family Express’ leadership.
“This has no benefit on labor dollars, but it is time and money well spent,” Olympidis said.
When it comes to hiring, Olympidis said Family Express devotes a great deal of time and effort to this process.
“I’m a big believer in measure what you treasure,” he said. “The strategies you use may be different, but the only way to control labor is to measure it against yourself."
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