RetailWire Discussion: CSD: Prototypes With Plasticity

By Shawn Foucher

Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is an excerpt of a current article from Convenience Store Decisions magazine.

The successful development of a convenience store prototype is a bit like an exercise in finding one's soul.

Half the soul-searching is done through scrupulous examination of all the internal components, while the rest is done by accounting for all the external forces that perpetually shape the inside.

Sound spiritual and cryptic? Maybe just a single word is adequate to capture a successful prototype process: flexibility.

"The key, really, is knowing that there's a place for every type of convenience store," said John Schaninger, vice president of marketing for New Jersey-based Quick Chek Food Stores. "An operator has to decide what their vision is for the future. It's really about determining what your offer is and seeing your place ... and then optimizing it."

What Mr. Schaninger and other retailers know is this: Any viable retailer can polish a store brand to adapt to a volatile market, but a prototype concept is successful not just by capturing the brand identity, but by building in enough flexibility to handle the inevitable variables.

Trends change, brand colors fade and city council members get big heads that slow down approvals of building permits. Designing a prototype concept with contingency and flexibility is, well ... kind of like finding your true self.

"It takes us two to three years to get a store built," Mr. Schaninger said. "On paper we design it, but when you go out and build it, you get to see what you like and what you don't like, and then you tweak the design."

With more than 100 stores throughout New Jersey and southern New York, Quick Chek has long been an innovator in foodservice, coffee and other categories.

The chain's recent prototype stores include a template in beer-friendly New York, as well as a separate design for New Jersey, where c-stores are prohibited from selling beer. "We did a lot of work engineering each department," Mr. Schaninger said. "We know, for example, how big our prototype coffee center should be, then our bakery, then the sub bar, the soup bar -- even a standard for how many cooler doors there are.

"We basically took everything we knew would maximize the customer's experience, put it in a box, and said, 'How big does this have to be?'"

As it turns out, 7,200 square feet. The Quick Chek prototype store in Lake Katrine, NJ is a c-store colossus centered on major in-store profit centers, but it also offers an impressive 20 fuel bays outside.

The chain's design process required input from every portion of the executive spectrum, from the construction department and category managers to human resources and accounting.

Store rollouts in the future can certainly be less than 7,200 square feet, Mr. Schaninger said, but the prototype size offers a suitable template to help steer growth with new site selection or expansions at existing sites.

Discussion Question: What's the right way and the wrong way to develop a store prototype? What are some common mistakes that retailers make in coming up with and rolling out prototypes?

Prototypes With Plasticity - Convenience Store Decisions

Discussion Questions

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Comments:

This is a great example of where virtual reality environments can be of use. We (for one) can create that environment, let shoppers go through, determine the sales impact of different arrangements and assortments, etc. While no VR setup can capture all of the aspects of a real environment (the smell of food cooking or coffee brewing, for example), we can go a long way before construction needs to take place. A lot of vetting can be done before you spend money on optimizing the design.

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Dr. Stephen Needel, Managing Partner, Advanced Simulations

Plasticity is great but durability is important, too. Too often the new store design looks great but doesn't wear well once it has experienced a couple of years' worth of traffic and abuse. It's important to be realistic about the probable lifespan and usage of the new format.

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Al McClain, CEO, Founder, RetailWire.com

John Schaninger was right when he said "The key, really, is knowing that there's a place for every type of convenience store." But location must obviously be combined with knowledge of your market, traffic patterns, competitive c-stores, product offering and customer experience.

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Janet Dorenkott, VP & Co-owner, Relational Solutions, Inc.

Having spent many years developing retail design prototypes based on strategic branding and business models, convenience stores are a breed unto themselves. First of all, you've got to remember what market they are trying to cater to; who is walking in the door and shopping the aisles. You don't give that customer frills and amenities that simply slow down their shopping trip. While designers and operators may want to upgrade with finishes and fixtures comparable to new market food outlets, it probably wouldn't be appreciated by the customer.

And finer, more expensive details won't be appreciated by the owners, either because of the cost to install or maintain; my view is that convenience stores--open 24 hours a day in all kinds of weather and catering to an often in-a-hurry customer, get a lot of abuse.

I think the smart convenience store is bright, graphic, fun, quick in/quick out, and makes all those impulse merchandise items clearly visible to lure the customer while satisfying a hunger or thirst.

By the way things are going, convenience stores may in the future be the only place to buy cigarettes--how or why do you make that look well designed?

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Jerry Gelsomino, Principal, FutureBest

The best approach I've seen is two-fold.

The physical setup store, often in a warehouse near the head office, is the ultimate tool to master the newest prototype. Successful implementations are built to look like actual stores, complete with shelf tags, store-like lighting and cash registers.

The virtual environment is then built with flexibility. You can build every virtual variation of the cooler doors. This process is continued throughout the store to build all of the optimal and likely section sizes.

The final step is stitching the various pieces together to make up the final localized store. This may include or exclude the beer coolers noted in the pre-amble.

The retailers using the combination of physical setup and virtual environments are the ones who are winning.

Dan Desmarais, President, Cantactix Solutions Inc.

Step #1 in designing any new store prototype: what's the price? Great designers are great editors. They produce the best possible product for the budget they're given. Quick Chek wouldn't have 100+ stores if they had great design with an unlimited budget. How many retailers create dream prototypes that cost triple what they can afford? The number of embarrassments are legion.

Mark Lilien, Consultant, Retail Technology Group

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