McLane Co. Inc., one of the largest distributors in America for retail and restaurant brands, held its annual McLane Engage event, featuring experts in foodservice, store design and more.
This year’s event took place from Aug. 28-30 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville.
The conference featured networking opportunities, a trade show floor with the latest c-store products, educational content and more.
Declutter the Store
Joseph Bona, president and founder Bona Design Lab Inc., said design must serve a purpose. And while not every convenience store has the budget for a full remodel, there are some small improvements they can make in design that can make a big impact.
Start with decluttering, he said. Clean up and open the main aisles so it’s easier for customers to navigate the store. This may just require some elbow grease, Bona said, and not a lot of design effort.
Taking care of deferred maintenance is a part of this—whether it’s a leaky sink or light bulbs that are out. Those are the things customers recognize, he said.
“Design doesn’t have to be expensive,” Bona said. “It has to be thoughtful; it has to be purposeful; and it has to solve a problem.”
Padma Lakshmi on the Need for Fresh, Wholesome Food at C-Stores
Padma Lakshmi (pictured above on the left), acclaimed culinary expert and “Top Chef” personality, has traveled around the world for her job. And her TV show on Hulu, "Taste the Nation," often took her to small, rural areas, where she’d visit convenience stores.
“I have always been able to make a meal late at night,” Lakshmi said to Farley Kaiser, senior director of culinary innovation at McLane. “Cause when you’re traveling, and you get to where you’re going sometimes it’s 1 a.m., and there is no restaurant or delivery service that’s open in these little rural towns where we’re filming, but there’ll always be a convenience store or a gas station or something. And what I have noticed now is what we think of as a convenience store is so much more as just packaged, processed snack foods, drinks.”
While traveling for work, Lakshmi would also find herself setting up a makeshift kitchen in her hotel rooms so she could make meals for her daughter.
“We are in need of fresh food and wholesome food and interesting flavors in those convenience stores, because all of us are working full-time jobs, we’re rushing home, we’ve got to pick something up,” Lakshmi said. “Parking and going to a big grocery store the size of this room takes time, but if you can just dip in and get a couple of things you need and doctor up even if you can’t make it homemade something you’ve bought, that’s fine. Any endeavor to feed yourselves and your families in a more robust, healthy way is important. And I really believe that convenience stores have a huge, huge part to play in that.”
Determine the Role of Technology
Art Sebastian, CEO of NexChapter and chairman of CSP’s C-StoreTEC Advisory Board, said there are many ways c-store retailers can invest in technology.
“One of the biggest pieces of advice I give to companies is determine the role of technology at your company… Ask yourself, ‘What’s the role of tech?’” Sebastian said.
A c-store might be a pioneer, where they lead with technology and lean into breakthrough innovation, or, at the other side of the spectrum, an experimenter.
After a company decides the role of technology in their organization, build a technology roadmap, he said.
“The first thing you want to do is get your organization ready internally,” he said.
This involves engaging owners and the whole team, having strategic objectives, deciding what technology features a company wants to build and more.
While there are many options for c-stores to lean into, Sebastian recommends these three: Loyalty, e-commerce and retail media.
Evolve Foodservice
When it comes to foodservice, c-stores need to determine two things: What do you want to be famous for? And where do you just need to compete?
That’s according to Jon Cox, vice president of retail foodservice at McLane, who spoke at Engage with McLane’s Customer Experience Officer Vito Maurici and Senior Director of Food Safety for McLane Terry Levee.
Sometimes c-stores need to focus on the basics while they work on developing what they want to be famous for, Cox said.
“It’s a slow build. You have to build from the center of the plate. If you’re going to be in sandwiches, you have to do the core sandwiches really well,” Cox said.
Once a c-store builds trust with the basics, customers will then trust them for different items, like a limited-time-offer or specialty sandwich.
“You can’t start by just jumping into the deep end,” he said.
Another part of trust is consistency, especially when it comes to food safety.
If a retailer doesn’t take the time to set up a food safety culture, then everybody is going in their own direction, Levee said.
“When you have a McLane program like ours, what we do is we help you get there. We can help you set up the guidelines, we can give you job aids when you buy our equipment, those kind of things. And what that does, it leads to a consistent food safety program,” he said.
Founded in 1894, McLane services convenience stores, mass merchants and chain restaurants. With headquarters in Temple, Texas, McLane has more than 80 distribution centers across the country, employs more than 25,000 teammates, and delivers to nearly every zip code in the United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
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