{"id":3256,"date":"2013-10-07T12:23:21","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T12:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom.chainstoreguide.com\/?p=3256"},"modified":"2013-10-07T12:23:21","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T12:23:21","slug":"theres-a-convenience-store-battle-brewing-in-the-tampa-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/2013\/10\/theres-a-convenience-store-battle-brewing-in-the-tampa-market\/","title":{"rendered":"There's a Convenience Store Battle Brewing in the Tampa Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa, FL area has recently become a hotbed for aggressive convenience store companies, with some of the best in the business showcasing new formats and prototypes. A recent drive through the region with Chain Store Guide\u2019s<\/strong> foodservice research management team consisting of Senior Research Editor Linda Helman<\/a> and Managing Editor Matt Werhner<\/a> found four stores within a roughly two mile radius of one another.\u00a0 The store visits with my coworkers were informative from both a retail and foodservice perspective. One location stood out in particular as innovative, unique, and successful, and it had the foot-traffic during a busy Thursday lunch-hour to prove it.<\/p>\n

Wawa, Thorntons, and Race Trac operate locations within the Tampa market. \u00a0While visiting one of each on our tour, I noticed these locations had distinct new features mostly focusing on foodservice operations. The fourth, a new Victory Lane independent in Riverview, FL, was the most traditional of the group and lacked any distinctive features.<\/p>\n

The new Thornton\u2019s location is approximately 2,200 square feet on a large parcel of property with twenty gasoline pumps offering private label fuel.\u00a0 Upon entering, a center store section of private label prepared sandwiches, salads, and other \u2018grab-and-go\u2019 lunch items is visible. Food can be purchased hot, while other items can be heated up in a nearby microwave oven station or purchased cold. These items went far beyond the traditional hot dog roller one might be accustomed to seeing inside a usual gas station. Here, grilled chicken sandwiches, burgers, summer salads, and cheese platters can be found. The Race Trac location is on a large piece of property that also had twenty gasoline pumps offering private label fuel. While not a new store, it features a remodeled interior with a large area for prepared foods, beverages, and snacks. As with Thornton\u2019s, most prepared food goods are private label and there is a clear push to promote the enhanced food offerings.<\/p>\n

Wawa is making an aggressive push in this area, and our visit to the Tampa location was my first. The time was around 12:45 on a Thursday afternoon, and the store was bustling with people getting lunch. Wawa has a unique model unlike any convenience store I\u2019ve seen. The store offers all the amenities of a traditional gas station \u2013 sixteen gas pumps, walk-in beer cave, drinks\/snacks \u2013 while also housing an in-store takeout restaurant. All ordering is done on a touchpad screen by the consumer while a Wawa associate is available to assist.\u00a0 Hot and cold sandwiches, daily specials, quesadillas, and soups are available fresh to order. Once the order is placed, a ticket is printed to the customer to pay at one of three register sections separated throughout the store. Then, the order is pushed to the kitchen and called over a loud-speaker when ready. Seating at this location was limited to only three tables outside; however other locations have additional inside seating available. In my opinion, Wawa offered the most unique retail experience and holds clear advantages against its competitors.<\/p>\n

The biggest winners are the consumers in the area; these retailers are fighting for gas dollars and in-store purchases. Competition brings out the best in us, whether personal, professional, or between businesses. When this happens, the consumer always wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tampa, FL area has recently become a hotbed for aggressive convenience store companies, with some of the best in the business showcasing new formats and prototypes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-3256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grocery-convenience","tag-insight","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}