Visual Merchandising and Store Design | VMSD.com

C-store operators are spiffing up their spaces to counter a barrage of market challenges – including Tesco’s pending arrival in America

By Matthew Hall

It’s easy selling gas these days, even at ridiculously high prices. What seems to be much more challenging for gas station operators is getting people into their adjoining convenience stores.

Pay-at-the-pump technology is making it easier for customers to buy gas without walking through the door. And higher gas prices are taking a more sizable bite out of each transaction, leaving less disposable money for that carton of milk, magazine or slushy. Besides, margins on such c-store staples as gasoline and tobacco have shrunk in recent years.

And as if those challenges to U.S. c-store operators are not enough, a brash – and big – new competitor will enter the fray this month, when British-based food retailing giant Tesco begins rolling out its first Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.

Though Tesco has been mum about the specifics of what its new stores will look like (and whether any of them will sell fuel), the company has said its outlets will average 10,000 square feet. While that’s twice the size of a typical American c-store, the Fresh & Easy chain’s emphasis on convenience and ready-to-go meals will make it a competitor to c-stores and supermarkets alike. With a total of 50-plus sites slated to open in the Southwest U.S. within the next few months – and up to 500 possible across the country within a few years – the British are coming, indeed.

Upgraded Interiors

To counteract these and other competitive challenges, c-store operators continue to refine their efforts to get customers through the doors by upgrading their spaces and broadening their product mixes.

“People typically stop at a c-store because ‘something’s empty or something’s full,’ ” says Tom Ertler, prototype director at retail design firm WD Partners (Dublin, Ohio), whose clients include TravelCenters of America’s Goasis chain and The Home Depot Fuel c-stores. “They may stop because of competitive fuel prices, a convenient location or the need to use the restroom. But to get them to spend any time and money in the store itself, the retailers have got to make those spaces easy to shop, clean and visually appealing.”