The first MAPCO Mart is scheduled to open next month in Brentwood, Tenn., followed by a unit in Hendersonville, Tenn., Michele Niec, manager of public relations for Franklin, Tenn.-based MAPCO Express, told the newspaper. She said the design borrows concepts from two popular Pennsylvania c-store chainsWawa and Sheetz.
Those two retailers are leading an industry trend to shift focus on foodservice to turn a profit in an era of declining margins on gasoline sales, said Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). "The retailers [image-nocss] make money inside the store, and food service is a great opportunity for that," he told the paper. "One of the things you see is retailers can make more selling a 12-oz. cup of coffee than a 12-gallon fillup, by far."
Niec added, "It's a new concept, a new look, and we're looking at our existing stores to see which ones will remain MAPCO Express and which ones will eventually be retrofitted into MAPCO Marts," she added. She said the new stores will open at a rate of about one per month next year in Middle Tennessee.
The typical MAPCO Mart will span about 5,000 square feet and will have new prep kitchens and food seating areas so that customers can order food either to-go or for consumption on site, said the report.
The concept emphasizes food cooked to order in three minutes or less, Niec told the paper. Customers can use touchscreens on the gasoline pumps to order food such as hamburgers, Philadelphia cheese steak sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches and salads. Stores will also feature larger beverage coolers and coffee stations.
Niec said some MAPCOs will be retrofitted, and others, such as the Hendersonville location, are being razed and rebuilt into new prototypes that will include outside seating areas. She would not reveal what the company is spending on the retrofit.
It is the first significant upgrade for MAPCOs since Delek US, an Israeli company, bought the chain in 2001, the report said. There are 196 MAPCO stores, 112 of which are in Nashville.
MAPCO's new focus on food has prompted the company to hire new store managers with restaurant and foodservice experience, Niec said. Some of the new managers are coming from the ranks of Lebanon, Tenn.-based Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, she told the paper.
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