Customers’ idea of “convenience” is an ever-evolving concept.
That means retailers need to consistently be evaluating every part of their businesses, from their branding to their product mix and even the design of their stores.
Twenty years ago, many retailers wouldn’t have thought to develop stores with kitchens and dining rooms like a restaurant.
Ten years ago, few if any had space set aside for order pickups or deliveries.
And there’s no telling what new amenities customers might expect in a decade.
Some changes can be made with minimal updates to stores themselves, but others require rethinking the entire space.
Here are some of the ways that a variety of convenience retailers have been evolving their stores in the first half of the year.
Drive-thrus are gaining traction
The convenience store experience is often focused on driving up to the pumps, but it’s becoming more common these days to drive through instead.
Plenty of foodservice-focused chains have been installing drive-thru lanes at their stores.
Altoona, Pennsylvania-based Sheetz notes that its expansion in the Asheville area of North Carolina is expected to include drive-thru windows at its sites.
But the convenience store industry is also seeing sites that are centered around selling customers the wide variety of items they’re used to finding in a c-store without making them leave their cars.
Several small retailers have debuted such sites.
Fire Stop in Sacramento opened late last year with a small menu of drinks, snacks, health and beauty goods and other small sundries.
Separately, Riverside Mini Mart in Mesquite, Nevada, opened for drive-up shoppers in May, according to the Mesa Valley Progress.
“It is so much easier for someone like a mother with kids who doesn’t want to deal with kids while shopping in a store touching everything,” store manager Ana Gagliano told the newspaper.
It’s not just small companies. Last month, Wawa opened a standalone drive-thru store in Largo, Florida.
The store was the first of its kind for Wawa in the Sunshine State and only its third overall under that format.
As the meaning of “convenience” continues to evolve, drive-thru windows are becoming more of a c-store staple, but time will tell how well standalone drive-thrus will be adopted.
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