DALLAS -- Convenience-store retailer Sheetz Inc. has won Restaurant Business magazine’s Tech Accelerator Award in the nontraditional category, presented at Winsight’s recent FSTEC technology conference.
Going beyond traditional convenience-store foodservice models, Sheetz is using technology to attract younger diners with its two food-first units near Penn State and West Virginia University, the magazine said. Under “Pay Here” signs, the chain brought in self-ordering kiosks in an effort to help lines during peak hours. And it is encouraging eat-in guests too by including outlets and USB ports near many seating areas. The chain’s marketing team is even on board, turning to social media to drum up some attention.
Established in 1952 in Altoona, Pa., Sheetz is one of America's fastest-growing family-owned and operated convenience-store chains, with more than $6.9 billion in revenue and more than 16,000 employees. The company operates more than 500 locations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and North Carolina.
Restaurant Business also named Eatsa—an automat-like concept expanding from the San Francisco Bay area—as the 2016 Tech Accelerator of the Year, a recognition of the restaurant industry’s leading innovator in automation.
Eatsa has changed the restaurant experience. Customers order a highly customized meal via an app, delivered into a cubbyhole-like slot. Customers tap twice to open a door and extract their meal.
Except for a facilitator in the area to answer questions and explain the process, humans are not involved in the ordering—just the preparation.
The new model of frictionless service has drawn considerable industry attention. Eatsa has four location and said it expects to open more in high-density employment and residential areas.
Eatsa was selected for the top technology honor by the editors of Restaurant Business from among the top innovators in three categories: limited service, full service and nontraditional. It honored Eatsa in limited service, Johnny Rockets in full service and Sheetz among nontraditional foodservice outlets.
For the second annual Restaurant Business/FSTEC Awards, the magazine’s editors reviewed nearly 200 restaurant chains to single out and celebrate the concepts that exemplified best practices—and guts—in the past year through social media, digital or comprehensive technology efforts. These awards are a collaboration between RB magazine and FSTEC, the technology conference of parent company Winsight, which was held Sept. 25-27 in Dallas.
Restaurant Business is the companion publication of CSP magazine and CSP Daily News.
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