CSP Staff
Production planners, display systems and printers are a few examples of kitchen technology that can help convenience stores compete with quick-service restaurants (QSRs), c-store leaders said at at CSP‘s C-StoreTEC event, which took place Oct. 28-30 in Schaumburg, Illinois.
“[Foodservice] is a high-margin business… we’re seeing the need for more technology, and we’ve had a lot of conversation around the explosion of made-to-order [food],” said Art Sebastian (middle), CEO of NexChapter, a strategic growth advisory firm for the convenience and grocery channels based in Des Moines, Iowa.
Developing a food strategy is imperative to distinguish the brand, said Richard Guidry (right), senior vice president of foodservice at GPM Investments, a 1,543-store chain based in Richmond, Virginia. GPM focuses on being relevant, feasible, financially beneficial and high quality, he said. The chain refines these pillars by collecting data, testing products and using technology.
Guidry said that oftentimes items aren’t available when they should be in stores, whether it’s made to order, inventory or product on warmers. To help make employees’ jobs easier, GPM began by installing a manual production planner system and then transitioned to a database system that collects sales data by daypart and creates a production schedule of how much product to put out for the day.
In terms of customer-facing tech, Temple, Texas-based CEFCO installed ordering kiosks and digital menu boards, which promote made-to order food and customization awareness. CEFCO aims to offer ordering ahead at the pump in partnership with Dover, said Rachel Puepke (left), vice president of marketing, foodservice and merchandising at CEFCO, a chain of 222 stores, which Casey’s has agreed to acquire. Puepke also spoke at C-StoreTEC.
Both GPM and CEFCO are looking into kitchen management systems to make real-time decisions about waste and which items aren’t working.
“One of the benefits that I see on the financial side is being able to have visibility to all ingredients and products from the time it comes in a store to the time it goes through the register,” Guidry said.
C-stores are also competing with QSRs for employees, not just dollars, he said.
“If my competitor across the street is a QSR, and they have all this tech that makes the team members’ jobs super simple, and we don’t, and they’re getting paid the same amount, where do you think they’re going to want to work? They’re going to want to work where it’s easy, where they don’t have to put a lot of thought into it, where it’s plug and play, and it’s just easy,” said Guidry.
Label printing technology is another efficient way to make employees’ roles easier, he said. Employees don’t have to think about things like expiration times or ordering rows of labels.
Guidry said one potential danger with technology is becoming invasive and overbearing. It should be used to coach employees, not get them into trouble for making mistakes.
“If we use [kitchen tech] properly and we start to catch up to the QSR world, it can really positively impact our consumers and our team members and the shareholders,” Guidry said.
- Casey’s General Stores Inc. is No. 3on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.GPM Investments is No. 6.
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