As fuel and tobacco margins shrink, foodservice is a way to win, Jeffry Harrison, co-founder and president of Rovertown, said at CSP’sOutlook Leadership event in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
Harrison asked a panel, comprised of Amir Hassan, president of retail operations at H&S Energy Products; Patrick Raycroft, co-founder and CEO at Axonet, a division of W. Capra Consulting Group; and Lorraine Spadaro, chief information officer at Global Partners LP, about their foodservice tips.
“You have to have foodservice if you’re going to make it,” Hassan said.
Orange, California-based H&S Energy Products LLC has 165 stores, with many under its Power Market brand. In December 2022, a California law took effect that banned the sale of all flavored tobacco products in the state.
“For every hot dog that you sell, you make the same profit as if you sold four packs of cigarettes,’ Hassan said. “So [foodservice is] very important. You have to have something that differentiates you.”
- H&S Energy Products LLC is No. 50 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count. Global Partners LP/Alltown Fresh is No. 21.
Their stores offer a range of deli kitchens and they also recently introduced a take-and-bake flatbread, which can be heated up in store or customers can take it home.
For Raycroft, foodservice starts with differentiation, but the other side of the coin is focus and simplicity. Foodservice programs go wrong when they are overcomplicated and can’t be executed at scale efficiently. This ultimately can cause a bad customer experience and loss.
“It bleeds into a whole bunch of other things that ends up making it not profitable,” Raycroft said. “…Focus and simplicity are the counterbalance to differentiation.”
Spadaro’s tip: “You have to be convenient.”
She said they’re adapting their menus now to make the process faster. As good as the food is, she can’t wait 10 minutes to get it, Spadaro said.
Global Partners LP/Alltown Fresh, Waltham, Massachusetts, has 405 stores. Chicken tenders are popular in its traditional stores, she Spadaro said. Offering a really good breakfast sandwich ahs also been “surprisingly successful.”
Being known for having a sandwich with good cheese, good bread, cage-free eggs—and explaining that they’re cage-free or locally sourced eggs really matters, she said.
“We’re really leaning into the origin of the food and the local,” Spadaro said.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.