Tech Trends to Watch for 2023

At its coffee bar, Duchess offers three different roasts: a signature house blend, a decaf and a dark blend.

“We tested bean-to-cup equipment, but our customers didn’t want to take the time to brew their own cup,” he noted.

Duchess offers three different roasts: a signature house blend, a decaf and a dark blend. Different flavored creamers and some seasonal limited-time offers allow guests to customize their cups.

Self-serve cappuccino and iced coffee are also available.

The company is looking at expanding its coffee options to include cold brew and seasonal blends. To make the coffee purchase into a more holistic experience for the customers and a higher ring for the stores, Duchess has added more on-counter or adjacent displays and racks with signage for cross promotion with its own and consumer packaged goods brands of snack cakes, granola bars, doughnuts and other complementary items.

“We see strong sales with bundling,” Arnold noted.

Promotions such as a loyalty club buy-five-cupsand-get-the-fifth-free offer also boost coffee sales, he added. Recently, Duchess has introduced coffee delivery via Uber Eats.

“It’s been doing pretty well in our urban markets, and we expect delivery demand to increase during the winter,” he stated.

COFFEE SALES RETURNING

In 2020, Southwest Georgia Oil Co.’s SunStop Convenience Stores and Markets, which has 78 locations throughout Florida, Alabama and Georgia, totally revamped its traditional coffee brewing equipment with bean-to-cup equipment in all its stores. Since then, coffee sales have increased, although Michelle Weckstein, director of food and beverage brands for SunStop, hesitated to attribute that growth solely to the equipment swap.

“We’re seeing our overall store traffic count slowly coming up to pre-pandemic levels,” Weckstein explained. “We do know that coffee accounts for 14% of our total food sales and is a driver for getting people to come into our stores, especially over the colder months.”

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SunStop offers nine different coffee options — three basic hot (house, morning and dark blends) and three each of fl avored hot and cold brews.

In some of the rural stores that serve an older demographic, a more familiar soft-heat brewer holds freshbrewed coffee to accommodate morning traffi c.

Each store offers nine different coffee options — three basic hot (house, morning and dark blends) and three each of fl avored hot and cold brews. Every 60 days a limited-time offer (LTO) fl avored hot or cold brew is included in the mix.

One ever-popular promotion is the bundling of coffee with a large, proprietary-branded cookie. Loyalty app users can also get one hot coffee free with the purchase of six cups.

A couple of years ago, the company experimented with barista-made coffees. First, the concept was introduced in a store located in a college town and when that didn’t take off it was moved to an upscale neighborhood. That site was no more successful.

“Our clientele seems to be satisfi ed with the customization options we offer at our coffee bars,” Weckstein noted. “But just to give them another customization option, we are planning to add fl avored syrups to the condiment mix.” CSD

Fast Facts:

• Coffee sales are recovering from early pandemic lows. • Bundling coffee with other items, such as baked goods, grows sales. • Retailers are fi nding increased basket rings by merchandising complementary items near the coffee bar.

Tech Trends to Watch for 2023

From delivery and fulfillment to selfcheckout and loyalty programs, technology is helping c-stores increase speed and personalization for customers.

Brad Perkins • Contributing Editor

As we approach the start of 2023, convenience store chains are turning to technology to increase speed, effi ciency and accuracy for customers.

Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’s is a great example.

What does a brand famous for its pizza do when pandemic-related issues are keeping people from their ritual of pizza and a fi ll-up? It pivots. And it enlists technology to do it.

“When the pandemic hit, to make it convenient for our guests, we added grocery items (for delivery),” said Art Sebastian, vice president of digital experiences at Casey’s, whose pizza popularity makes it the U.S.’ fifth-largest pizza chain. “We now have 700 grocery items available for order.”

That’s a move Daniel Burrus, CEO of Burrus Research Associates, which monitors global advancements in technology, said other stores should emulate — and expand on.

“Convenience stores have limited space,” he said. “There’s not a lot in those stores, but there are things that people might want. You could have a large, flat-panel touchscreen and people can order the things that they want, and they will be delivered to them. It’s an instant purchase that the convenience store is making money on just like anything else.”

But that’s the future.

ORDER FULFILLMENT

In the near-term, Casey’s product expansion brought a new issue — fulfillment.

“We needed to put a better process in place for our stores to be able to pick those orders, stage them and hand them off to a delivery driver or a customer,” Sebastian said.

So Casey’s launched a grocery order fulfillment app running on Zebra handheld devices. Its pilot was so successful it’s now rolling it out to its more than 2,400 stores in 16 states.

“The technology tells you which guests

During the pandemic, Casey’s, known for its pizza program and delivery, began offering grocery items for delivery. It now has 700 grocery items available for order.