Nouria is the 2024 Mystery Shop winner, taking home an overall score of 97.48% in its third year participating in the audit, which evaluates participating convenience-store chains' cleanliness, employees and more. The winner and two runners up were announced Wednesday at CSP’s Outlook Leadership conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
While Nouria received the first-place score, Boise, Idaho-based Stinker Stores came in second, with a score of 96.18%, and Nashville-based Tri Star Energy received the third-place score of 95.96%. Joe Hamza (pictured second to the left), chief operating officer at Nouria Energy, accepted the award at Outlook.
- Nouria is No. 48 on CSP’s 2023 Top 202 list. Tri Star Energy is No. 52. Stinker Stores is No. 69. Watch for the full 2024 Top 202 ranking in the June issue of CSP magazine and in CSP Daily News.
The Mystery Shop audit assesses convenience-store chains with two types of studies: a revealed audit, which accounts for 60%, and a covert audit, which accounts for 40%. A total of 1,003 store visits were conducted between April 3 and May 9.
The variety of audits “let us get a lot deeper and a lot more detail … You simply cannot get [the customer experience pieces] from someone who knows that they are being evaluated,” said Cameron Watt, president and CEO of Intouch Insight, an Ottawa, Ontario-based data analysis firm that conducts the audits in partnership with CSP.
The study is comprised of 35 questions within nine sections: pump island, exterior, interior, restrooms, dairy cooler, fountain drinks, coffee, sandwich cooler and employees.
Nouria’s Top Categories
Worcester, Massachusetts-based Nouria stood out with a revealed audit score above 98% in seven categories.
In the revealed audit, Nouria’s fountain drink scores were the best of all 10 chains that participated, with 100% in each of the subcategories, including clean, fully-stocked and operational fountain drink areas.
Interior cleanliness is another portion of the revealed audit that the chain earned the top score. A clean cash counter, a clean ceiling, clean merchandise free of dust, organized merchandise and functioning lights all earned Nouria a perfect score, and not far behind at 99% was clean floors inside the store.
The coffee area also shined in Nouria’s revealed audits, with fully stocked, clean equipment with options for flavor shots and/or creams.
In the Mystery Shop portion, the chain also received above 98% in five areas, including appropriate noise levels and well stocked stores.
The scores and data shared here are just a sliver of the 2024 Mystery Shop findings. Check out more of CSP’s Mystery Shop coverage in the October magazine issue as well as podcasts with Nouria, Stinker Stores and Tri Star Energy.
Last Year’s Winner
Rutter’s was the Mystery Shop award winner in 2023. For the fourth time in six years, the York, Pennsylvania-based chain of 83 stores proved its place on top, last year with a score of 97.9%.
- Rutter’s is No. 82 on CSP’s 2023 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
Click here to read about last year’s results.
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