Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | April 15, 2019 | Worcester Business Journal 11 W Cumberland Farms, a privately-held firm that opened its first store in 1957 in Bellingham, isn't alone in moving toward higher-end options, bigger stores and more personalized choices. e Texas-based chain Stripes has its own taco line, Laredo Taco Co., in more than 450 of its roughly 700 locations. Georgia-based RaceTrac has self-serve ice cream, yogurt and other frozen treats. Pennsylvania-based Wawa is known widely for its freshly made sandwiches. New stores today are larger than ever, many more than 4,000 square feet, to make enough room for prepared and packaged sandwiches, pizzas and other fare, the Chicago-based analyst NRC Re- alty & Capital Advisors said in a report in January. e new Cumberland Farms store in Westborough is nearly 5,300 square feet. "ere's so much competition out there, and we have to be able to com- pete," said Heilbronner, the Cumberland Farms executive. "It's a big opportunity that we probably haven't leveraged in the past." Quality, cost & speed Across the industry, the main dif- ference between top performers and laggards is the growth of food service looking more like a restaurant, Lenard said. at doesn't mean convenience stores aren't still worried about speed. An av- erage customer is in and out in just four minutes, Lenard said. And while prices are higher for some items — like $4.99 for an Italian ciabatta sandwich or $2.69 for a cappuccino or latte — Cumberland Farms still keeps items cheaper than at, say, the fast-casual chain Panera Bread. Nearly a decade aer unveiling 99- cent coffee, for example, that price still stands. A lot else has changed, though. Kiosks are set up for ordering sand- wiches if someone wants an option not already available to take, or for a freshly made latte. Traditional aisles are laid out across less than half the store's interior space, with much more room for grab- bing coffee. ree self-checkout stations line the counter near the front door. Cumberland Farms and its compet- itors are searching for the best way to keep customers when fewer may have reason to come in the door. Cars are generally more fuel efficient than in past generations or run on battery, making gas stops less frequent or unnecessary. And when fewer people are driving to a shopping mall for purchases because they're shopping online, that leaves fewer vehicle trips for a stop at a conve- nience store to or from home. Only one out of five customers said they went to a convenience store during a trip for that singular purpose, according to a National Association of Convenience Stores annual report released in April. "e convenience store industry is facing a lot of challenges," said Da- vid Feit, a vice president for strategic insights for the industry analyst the Hartman Group in Washington. "It's not too dissimilar to what's happening with other industries." Industry research has shown custom- ers evolving in their idea of conve- nience, Feit said. Today, the concept in food is more likely to prioritize personalization or something unique. In past years, he said, there was a trade-off between cost, speed and quality. Now, fast-casual restaurants are more wide- spread, healthier and with higher-qual- ity choices. If convenience stores can't rely so much on gas fill-ups, better food options can become a stronger draw, Feit said. "You have to find other ways to bring people in," he said. Cumberland Farms has begun offering sandwiches like spinach and feta or Italian ciabatta in a move toward capturing higher-end food and drink sales.

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