Editor's Note: While former CSP intern Ashley Dickens is spending some time abroad, she is providing some perspective of the c-store market in the cities and countries she'll be visiting. In this sixth installment, we get a look at retailing convenience in Prague, Czech Republic. The final installment will appear in about three weeks, as Dickens offers her thoughts upon returning home to Kentucky.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- As my first trip to Eastern Europe, Prague afforded me experiences completely new and foreign to all of my travels of Western Europe, [image-nocss] mixing in a little new with the old. Prague, the largest city in the Czech Republic, hosted many interesting forms of the convenience store, including tab aks, markets and underground conveniences.
When I first began my search for convenience stores in Prague, my eye immediately searched out the tab aks, a type of store that I've grown accustomed to acknowledging as a European convenience store. In Prague, tab aks were similar to the others I'd seen in Germany and France, with one exception: Prague tab aks were very liberal in their products and marketing. It was not uncommon to find a store with a window displaying a large quantity of alcoholic beverages and often, a marijuana sticker. Surprisingly, the tab aks had about a 50-50 ratio of tobacco and alcohol products.
After locating the staple tab ak, I was off to search for a more conventional c-store. And, had I not been a college student on a budget, I probably would not have found this store. When I walked into Mani Mini Market, I immediately thought to myself, Welcome home!
Mani Mini Market was the American c-store. There were no gasoline pumps outside, but inside, this store sold canned goods and instant soup; it had an aisle of chips, and candies (including Haribo); there was a cooler for milk, ice cream, packaged sandwiches and carbonated drinks. This market even had a section of personal items: razors, toilet paper, feminine products. Household goods were sold, including trash bags, soap and sponges. A large selection of liquor was available but not tobacco. Of course, there was not a wide assortment of brands, but the hodge-podge of goods available made me feel welcome as the one-stop shopper. On top of all that, this store also offered fresh breads and produce.
My favorite discovery in Prague was the underground Trafika. This store acted much like the newsstands of Strasbourg and other European cities, except that it was located in an underground walkway to cross the highway. This store sold gum, newspapers, magazines, metro tickets, tobacco products and some liquor. Next to this store was a pizza stand that offered all the foodstuffs one would find in an American c-store.
The combination of these two underground stores fascinated me as a 24-hour stop for leisurely entertainment and nourishment. Its location and nonstop hours seemed ingenious to me.
My trip to Eastern Europe demonstrated that the concept of the c-store is very similar to the American expectation, with long hours and a large variety of products. Though the products might be sold in several locations in buildings beside one another, the Prague c-stores that I discovered often reminded me of the United States and made me further anticipate my return.
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