High End Convenience Stores
Some friends and I have floated this idea around for a few years and wanted to gather some thoughts from others. Essentially, if you have ever been to one of the ultra luxurious golf courses with a top notch comfort station / halfway house the goal would be to recreate that vibe but in the form of a convenience store in a major metro. Similar mix of grab and go snacks, inviting layout, and quick bites / made to order drinks. Also akin to the club floor at certain nice hotels.
Additionally kicked around aligning with electric charging stations and using a membership model a la Costco to create some community and exclusivity. Curious what others think? At least in my city most existing convenience stores are trash.
This concept has potential, especially if executed thoughtfully. Based on the most helpful WSO content and trends in retail, here are some insights and considerations:
Opportunities:
Targeting a Niche Market:
Membership Model:
Differentiation Through Design and Offerings:
Sustainability and Tech Integration:
Challenges:
High Operating Costs:
Competition:
Scalability:
Consumer Behavior:
Execution Tips:
Location is Key:
Partnerships:
Test the Concept:
Leverage Branding:
Customer Experience:
This idea has the potential to disrupt the traditional convenience store model, but success will depend on execution, location, and your ability to create a unique and memorable experience.
Sources: Gas Station, Car Wash, Fast Food - Owning Unsexy Businesses, Gas Station, Car Wash, Fast Food - Owning Unsexy Businesses, Will Malls survive this?
Problem is that this isn't convenient. The whole point of a convenient store is literally to spend as little time in there as possible. What you're describing is not a convenience store, but more akin to a cafe.
Fair point. I think the ways to mitigate this would be to focus on grab and go items (that don’t suck) with some other quicker food options and hooks more similar to the cafe you are describing (soft serve, coffee, etc.) as well as align with electric charging stations that take longer than legacy gas stations (for now at least).
Comfort stations on golf courses are inherently meant to be used quickly, and again that is where the idea came from.
Point taken though, it seems like a hard market to pin down in reality which is why we never went for it up to now.
Well there's a strong difference between a golf course and a convenience store. If someone is going to a golf course, it's because they've segmented their whole day out to do this. They've planned to basically relax for the day. It's literally a sport where you drive around in little cars and have other people carry your stuff for you. It's meant to be enjoyed over a long time period, so taking a couple minutes to relax in a comfort station makes sense.
With a convenience store, I don't walk in with the intention to sit and charge my phone and such. I go in, get my stuff, and leave. It's in the name. What you're describing sounds like a Starbucks you have to pay for a membership for. I mean, focus on grab and go items, charging stations, diverse food options? I've seen hipster coffee bars in Brooklyn literally just like this. And I don't need a membership to go there.
Akin to how Target used to be a refuge from the Walmart trash.
This already exists in various forms across the country with the exception of the membership model, which sounds like a bad idea.
I would never shop somewhere that I had to be a member to buy a to-go sandwich and a coffee, nor do I want to be a part of a “community” of sandwich-fee paying people, especially when these type of concepts already exist without a membership fee.
Just make it a little better than 7/11.
9/11 or something.
Interesting take. By raising prices a nominal amount, the riffraff self select out and you simultaneously offset the reduced foot traffic with higher margins. Catering to the wealthy is usually not scalable, but catering to the upper half of the middle class, well, look at Whole Foods, they're killing it.
This is essentially the crux of the idea. The others above pointed out some very fair criticism, but at the end of the day a lot of other retail and experiential sub sectors have segmented into businesses competing on cost and differentiation (planet fitness vs equinox / Whole Foods vs Aldi) while it seems like that has not happened in a meaningful way within smaller footprint retail stores.
There is a very specific vision that is apparently difficult to convey, but it will probably stay an intriguing pipe dream.
I don't think it needs to be pipe dream beyond the membership model though. Other than the monthly fee or whatever, I think it's a great idea.
Look into Caviar & Bananas, based out of Charleston. It's a food place-slash-convenience store. Or hell, even Erewhon based out of LA. It's famously an absurdly-priced grocery store, of course, but few people really go there for groceries proper as opposed to Erewhon's prepared food and smoothie bar. Maybe they grab a couple items on the way out, because you have to walk through half of the shelves to get to the registers.
That is what you want: super high end food and drinks and a few key essentials that someone with the bank account to spend on them can rely on in an age of enshittification ruining once-reliable middle-end options like Chipotle or CAVA and CVS or wherever treating their shelves like a prison commissary. Give people a 9/10 or even 10/10 sandwich and they'll pay $35 or some other laughable amount for the convenience, as well as $10 for some toothpaste that should cost $4.
I just don't think people are going to want to pay you a cover charge or a monthly thing, because other than gyms and country clubs, no one really plans to go to a convenience store. You don't leave your house with one as a destination. You just end up there, because you realize you need something, and the store is convenient.
would only work in LA or another niche place with young people that have more money than brains. its a gimmick that would need to be "viral" and could still flame out due to high rent cost.
edit: best of luck and hope if you pursue that I am wrong and that you succeed.
Appreciate it! Only time will tell.
You are essentially describing Erewhon.
Was about to say, it sounds like an express concept on Erewhon.
The golf course stations benefit from having a captive audience. Not the case for cities or suburbs.
This is what Foxtrot was and it didn't work out. I'm sure there's been equivalents in other cities. Amazon keeps trying to do that whenever it tinkers with different formats for Whole Foods.
I had never heard of Foxtrot but looks pretty spot on. I quickly browsed some of the Reddit forums discussing the store and seemed like mixed reviews on whether people loved it or hated it, but not a great reflection of the business model given the closure.
There's an amazing example of this in St. Johns Wood London called Panzers Deli (specialises in khoser bagels), the single site of with a 125-150m^2 floor plate does turnover north of $14m in turnover at ∼50% GM and ∼11% Net profit margin. Check it out as a comp, which is double that of a 7-11.
I'm wondering if some of the draw is the novelty though. I'm assuming good bagels are a rarity in London. (Tell me if I'm wrong) Here in NYC, I need to walk two blocks for good-ish bagels, and it's a ~25min subway ride for some of the best bagels in the world. Almost nobody will pay double for a Snickers bar because your store looks nicer.
(OP: Best of luck, by the way)
Seems like a cool idea, but I just go in to buy one of the $5 starbucks iced coffee cans and some zyns. Lowkey don't care if there's nice seating.
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