Convenience Store Expert On A Future Beyond Smokes and Cokes

Frank Beard has been a convenience store influencer before there was a word for that and his C-Store Dive columns enlighten and entertain his in-the-know audience of retail fans. In his day job as head of marketing at Rovertown, the leading app platform for convenience retailers, he helps stores succeed.

Beard spoke with Specialty Food News about the latest in convenience stores.

When I think about the current state of the convenience store, my first thought is the urban c-store model and rumors of its demise. What are you seeing?

 First, I’ll say that Foxtrot is one of those chains that I really wanted to succeed. What we see as an American convenience store reflects very hard realities about how our lives are organized. It's really hard to make convenience work without fuel because candidly, we live in places designed for cars, not people. 

I think a lot of people look at the convenience channel and see that this is a very mass market “smokes and cokes” offer, built around the same products from the same CPGS, and they see that as maybe something that's out of date. I think what they miss is that it's that way because it's really successful.

I think the Foxtrots of the world say, well, we should have something that's more of a destination, something that has a degree of walkability, that can fill the void of the lack of third places that exist in many of our communities. Several people have tried to decouple that and put more of a specialty product mix in there. And to date, nobody has been able to scale successfully.
 
Is convenience retailing still a regional business?

Yes, and that's in my opinion, where it gets really exciting. Roughly two-thirds of the industry are single-store owner-operated. And with the regionality, you get some unique things that come out. 

We work with some retailers that are nearly 100 years old. They've been delighting people for decades and they've built brands that mean something to the people in those communities. It's no secret that when you look at the top performers in the industry, these are companies that tend to have very strong foodservice programs.

One of the best examples of this is Shop Rite in Louisiana with its Bourbon Street Deli stores. They have what is probably the best Cajun quick-service concept I've ever seen. It's designed with a Mardi Gras vibe. And you go up to the touch screens, you place your order. They have a full kitchen back there and they'll do boudin, they'll do blackened alligator po boys. They're doing it out of a gas station. And it's amazing.

7-Eleven could dump a lot of stores in its area. Circle K could add more stores, but they're never going to sell that kind of food, and they're never going to compete on that product. And so that's a huge differentiator.
 
How are you seeing specialty products in regional c-stores?
 Folks are trying to introduce some specialty products as a way to stand out. Road Ranger, the truck stop chain that's in a lot of stores in the Midwest and the South just announced that they're adding Omaha Protein Popcorn, which is a low sugar way to give you indulgent popcorn, but you don't feel bad about yourself when you're done. If you're a trucker, if you're someone making a long drive, or even if you live in the community, that looks good. I think you're going to see more retailers exploring more specialty products as a way to differentiate.

What other developments are you seeing in terms of high-quality products in convenience?

Convenience stores have really upped their coffee game. If you go back to around 2015, you started to see companies like Ricker’s. They've since been acquired by Giant Eagle and GetGo, but Ricker’s was one of the early ones that started putting a lot of bean-to-cup coffee machines into its stores. Previously, everyone was batch brewing. When you put a dialed-in bean to cup machine in a c-store, you can get a better degree of consistency and a good product, and that's really become table stakes. It's almost surprising now when you see a chain that does not have an expensive bean to cup machine or four or five or six of them.

In SFA’s State of the Specialty Food Industry report, our research showed that snacking indulgence and little treats are king right now for Americans. How does that show up in the c-store?

The thing is, while nobody's really happy to pump gas in their car and have to pay for gas, the reality is no one's ever upset that they went to the convenience store. If you're depressed and you need some ice cream, they got it. If you're coming home and you want a beer, they got it. If you're a kid and you go there, you can probably try to convince your parents to get you some chips or a doughnut. The convenience store, if you look at the emotional needs that it satisfies and the daypart needs that it satisfies, it's an industry that really does tend to be very resilient.