Welcome to the New Convenience Store
At Foxtrot in Chicago. PHOTO: LUCY HEWETT FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
With consumer tastes changing, the
place where we go for frequently sought, last minute buys must change as well.
Convenience Stores, or "C-Stores" are undergoing a much appreciated
make over and really blossoming from being the Slim Jim, coffee, and cigarette
stop to becoming the kind of place where you can find guilty pleasures like
these side by side to vegan offerings, specialty wraps, and green juice.
These new additions are meant to
complement the unchanged aspects of the traditional c-store such as the size of
the store and late hours. The Choice Market in downtown Denver is a shining
example of this new breed of convenience store: they are open 24 hours a day,
they carry milk, yogurt, and Doritos as well vegan chips, quinoa, seaweed and
multigrain foods. Owner Mike Fogarty says that despite all these hip offerings
including beer and Kombucha on tap, The Choice Market is not a restaurant, nor
is it a health food stop. It is a convenience store where you are meant to find
junk food as well wider range of healthy/vegan options.
Choice Market in Denver offers beer on tap.
More stores such as this are appearing in the U.S. such as the Green Zebra in Portland, Oregon, the Foxtrot in Chicago, and the Goods Mart in L.A. “People will come in and say this isn’t a convenience store,” said Lisa Sedlar, the founder of Green Zebra Grocery. “And I say, ‘Of course it is.’ We are redefining what it means to be a convenience store in America.” For Foxtrot CEO and Founder Mike LaVitola, the inspiration was to create a new take on the classic convenience store offerings at a higher quality; swapping what repulses some consumers about c-stores like grimy sandwiches for more appealing options with better ingredients. All of these storefronts embody the convenience store ways but with a more hip vibe and as result, conventional convenience stores are taking note of these changes and even improving the aesthetics of their own shops through improved lighting and hardwood floors or expanding their offerings. The implementation of these changes shows that the traditional format stores are aware of the new competition and are trying to keep up.
There are many forces driving this
change based on Hartman Group studies; the emergence of fast-casual
restaurants, snacks replacing meals, and the fact that primary shoppers are
making stops at a vast range of outlets have all made an impact towards this
change. Increasingly, not all customers opt for a fast casual eatery when they
want to have an experience on a short time frame. Today, 50% of all
"eating occasions" are now replaced by snacks—and the straight shot
location to snacks is a convenience store! Additionally, the average
number of grocery trips made per purchaser, per month jumped nearly 30% between
2014 and 2017, so it is no surprise that these quasi-specialty food/ quasi-one stop
shop are increasing in popularity.
These new stores have a finger on
the pulse of what a convenience store should be in the future, and are doing
their best to keep it that way. They are meeting consumer’s changing need for
finding the finer things along with the comforting items that have been the draw to convenience stores in the first place; I am excited for
more! My question now is with consumer tastes changing constantly, what will this become in 20-30 years? Will this new format be the final upgrade to the traditional convenience store? While these convenience store owners suggest that this is the final format for them, with more prestige associated with these locations they could easily cross over to other industries like the restaurant business or increase size to the point they become supermarkets. This article describes only a handful of this new kind of c-store but with their popularity at the beginning of their life cycle, it is a matter or time before new competition arises attempting to jump on the bandwagon. If this is the case, I hope they get it right.
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