How Food Expertise Can Better Serve You and Your Customers
Two weeks ago, we brought you an overview of our visit with Board Member Marty Glick and the NCD’s distribution center in Farmingdale, New York. If you haven’t had an opportunity to read that installment, please take a moment to do so. It has lots of details about one of our most supportive Member Benefit Partners (MBPs), as well as presents some good insight into what it takes to service store owners on a continual basis.
As we touched on in that piece, we now want to circle back to focus on how convenience store owners can utilize unique products and services to bring you some additional information on how expanded food service can benefit your business without a huge cost or labor commitment.
First it should be noted that NCD provides any number of shelf-stable products to outfit your store and satisfy your customers. However, they can also help you stock your shop with fresh items to increase attention and foot traffic.
In very general terms, these products may fall into the following categories:
Fresh Products – These are packaged items that have recently been made and are typically not preserved. This type of product usually has a shorter shelf life (typically 3 to 5 days) and does best in locations that have regular traffic. An example is a sandwich that has been made, wrapped in plastic wrap, and sold in a refrigerated display or cooler.
MAP Products – These are prepared products that are protected by a Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP). MAP products extend the shelf life of perishable food products. To do this, the air surrounding the item is modified. This involves replacing the ordinary air with a mix of specific gases to slow down the spoilage of the item. The gases used are usually nitrogen and carbon dioxide, with a reduced amount of oxygen. Replacing ordinary air with MAP gases will slow food spoilage, maintain the quality of the product (often without any artificial preservatives), and prevent microbial growth. An example is a sliced cold-cut sandwich that has been placed in a plastic receptacle and is sealed. Another is a cup of fresh fruit that has a plastic seal.
Frozen Products – Foods that can be purchased frozen, but are thawed or heated for consumption at the point of sale. Some examples of this are chicken (wings, patties, nuggets, etc), beef (hamburger patties, tacos, etc), and dessert pastries (cakes, danishes, rolls, croissants, donuts, etc).
What does this amount to? Fresh foods in their natural state will spoil and expire sooner than MAP foods, which have a longer refrigerated shelf life; while frozen foods that are heated/prepared for sale at your store will have the longest shelf life of the three.
Overall, the advantages of pursuing this strategy are food safety (you don’t have to worry about raw foods, contamination, or bacteria), product storage/production (pre-determined shelf life, less waste), and controlling costs (each item is formulated to minimize waste and maximize profits).
As a general proposition, these products have good margins, are appealing to patrons, and can supplement your existing offerings with little disturbance. For example, your convenience store may already offer coffee, tea, and other morning beverages for patrons to purchase. However, these items can be supplemented with pastries, baked goods, breakfast sandwiches, and other quick items that arrive at your shop frozen, and can be thawed a few hours beforehand (or easily heated), and put on display for purchase.
Thankfully, NCD will help with this process from start to finish. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandates that all food products inventoried by reputable distributors (like NCD) must account for the handling, tracking, and storage of food products from their receiving docks to their inventory storage/refrigerators/freezers to the retail customer. This means that food safety (not letting foods warm or spoil) is a priority.
Many competitors who operate direct store delivery (DSD) services often skirt the same regulations that NCD (and others) are mandated to adhere to. Ultimately, this can mean that a more “affordable” product from a DSD service might seem cheaper, but could ultimately cost you more once considerations are made for food safety, product quality, and customer satisfaction. Not to mention, your patron’s physical reaction is also of importance (did she or he get sick from what they consumed, did they have a poor reaction, etc).
In standing astride a wide portion of this process, NCD is situated to help you not only procure quality products, but also expand facets of your own business to reach new customers. During our visit, the test kitchen demonstrated how a small investment in hardware and space preparation can open new opportunities for customers to patronize your store.
Some examples of this include:
Hardware – Purchasing a commercial high speed oven (such as the TurboChef Bullet or Turbofan Convection Oven) can help you prepare dozens of different foods quickly. These devices are very versatile, user-friendly, and can be used on a wide array of products.
Employee & Workforce Considerations – You might think that to run this kind of operation, you would need a few employees, lots of free countertop space, and ample refrigerator/freezer inventory capacity. And yet, to get started and have something unique to offer customers, this is not necessary. If you are limited on space and employees, a single shop worker could prepare various foods, load them into a commercial food warmer display case, and have a number of freshly heated items to offer customers for the next few hours. While not as versatile a solution as having a full-time employee focusing solely on made-to order items, it does permit you to have something delicious and filling to offer hungry customers for long stretches of time. What’s more, these products last for hours. Meaning that one employee could prepare dozens of items, stock the warmer display case, and you will have already-prepared items to offer patrons. And because they’re reheating pre-cooked and frozen items, there’s no risk of food safety issues from potentially undercooking meats, nor is there any need for cooking skills.
Product Displays & Attracting Attention – Putting baked goods and pastry items in organized baskets, trays, and refrigerated displays to attract attention or offer something easy for consumers to grab as they make their way through the store (fresh cookies, buttered rolls, cheese danishes, donuts, and more). Want to elevate things further? NCD can supply you with small window pastry boxes, waxed paper sleeve bags, and similar wares to make these items even more attractive to customers. A busy, short-staffed store could simply take items out of the box and put them on the shelf. But with a little effort, like removing the packing and placing the items in displays, the same item could be sold at a higher price because it looks fresher and more appealing.
All of this noted, you don’t have to figure it out alone. NCD has staff on hand to evaluate your shop, offer suggestions on how things can be configured, and work with you to bring in new products and items to expand your offerings. In fact, that’s exactly what they have done for many members over the years. In offering their services, they have enabled shop owners to increase their profits while utilizing the same physical space.
The NJGCA Board members and staff who attended the excursion a few weeks ago got to see much of the above play out in real time. We were able to hear directly from the NCD test kitchen staff on how they prepare items, invent new offerings, and the processes involved in evaluating a convenience store to bring these products to their customers.
In doing so, the test kitchen staff also showed us a series of proprietary in-house branded items, including Rachael’s Hand Crafted, Mighty Chicken, Island Coffee, Craft House Bakery, MyPie (Pizza), Uncle Ed’s Pantry, and more. You can see some samples of these items below; but just about everything we sampled was tasty, prepared well, and would satisfy any hungry customer on the go.
Could you use a second opinion or an outside perspective to determine if you can improve your layout or offerings? If so, contact us and we’ll put you in touch with the team at NCD.
Lastly, if you’d like to see a similar demonstration to the one we viewed in Farmingdale (foods, products, tactics, and all) please let us know. We are currently gauging interest in hosting the NCD on our side of the river to speak with members. If you would like to attend, please let us know so we can contact you once our plans are solidified.
A series of prepared foods protected by Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) containers. These items have an extended shelf-life and will last from 10 to 14 days when refrigerated (as opposed to 3 to 5 days for ordinary fresh products).
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Specialty baked goods can be shipped to a store frozen, then thawed a few hours before putting them on display for patrons to purchase.
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Specialty packaged baked goods (like these variety cupcakes) are shipped to a store frozen, then thawed a few hours before putting them on display for patrons to purchase. These items are stable for a few days at room temperature, or can last for more than two weeks if kept refrigerated.
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Various items can be put out near coffee stations in baskets, trays, or display shelves.
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NCD has proprietary in-house branded items for convenience store owners to purchase. They include Rachael’s Hand Crafted, Mighty Chicken, Island Coffee, Craft House Bakery, MyPie (Pizza), Uncle Ed’s Pantry, and more.
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NCD’s in-house MyPie pizza brand has become popular with customers. The pizza is delivered frozen, is thawed, and stored in an open refrigerated cooler for up to five days. Customers can take the wrapped pizza and cook it at home; it may be cooked at the store and sold as a whole “take out” pizza. NCD offers customers a pizza box for “take out” purchases. Store owners can also cook the pizza in their commercial high speed oven and put it in a food warmer display case to sell by the slice. Profit margins on this item are very high, with markup by the slice exceeding 50% per sale.
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A display illustrating the variety of items that convenience store owners can purchase frozen, and reheat at their shops for customers to enjoy. These items can be made to order, or put in a food-warmer display.
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An example of a food warmer display case in the NCD test kitchen. The display can be loaded up with products and kept warm for hours for customers to “grab n’ go” as needed.
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Two commercial high speed ovens in the NCD test kitchen. These ovens are very versatile and can be used with any number of products.
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