Convenience stores aim to remake their image

Most companies are taking a broader approach, outfitting their shops with kitchens or forming partnerships with existing restaurants, such as Subway and Dunkin' Donuts. Many shops will even bring their food to you with catering services.

Today, 80 percent of convenience stores offer food prepared onsite, making it one of the fastest growing segments of the food service industry, according to the National Restaurant Association.

All that food prep takes space, and newer shops have it. Today's convenience stores average about 3,000 square feet, nearly 25 percent larger than those built just a decade ago, according to the convenience stores association.

Bill Knight upped that ante when he opened his 12,500-square-foot flagship NexStore MarketPlace in Boca Raton, Fla., last December. Nearly two-thirds of the space is kitchen. Outside there are nearly 300 parking spaces.

He needs the room. Knight employees 41 chefs who prepare 120 different baked items, including cakes, pies and pastries, 12 soups, 16 varieties of sushi and more than 150 different deli items. There's also a meat carving station.

Oh yeah, and he sells gas, too. At 20 pumps.

Knight's shop may sound excessive, but it's no anomaly.

Sheetz, Inc., an Altoona, Pa., company with hundreds of convenience stores along the mid-Atlantic, recently opened two 10,000-square-foot shops that offer dining rooms, espresso bars and salads and pizzas made-to-order.

"The whole convenience dynamic is changing and changing in a big way," said Bill Reilly, vice president of sales and marketing for Sheetz, which plans to open dozens more super-shops this year.

The changes aren't without challenges. Fancy foods won't play in every neighborhood. And years of bad coffee and hot dogs under heat lamps have made many consumers reluctant to take convenience store food seriously.

"Having them see 7-Eleven as a good alternative to a McDonald's or a Burger King is a challenge," conceded Jim Keyes, president of 7-Eleven, which has a team of chefs developing healthy sandwich wraps and other fresh foods for 5,000 of its North American shops. But Keyes said parents increasingly see his shops as a healthier choice than traditional fast food.

Karen Moran is one such parent. Convenience stores induce less guilt than they used to, she said recently while browsing dozens of sandwiches, baskets of fruit and more than a dozen gourmet coffees at an On the Run store in Manchester, N.H.

"I like convenience stores more than I used to," the Danville, Vt., mother of two said as she stocked up on snacks. "There's more to choose from. You can have lunch now and not feel too bad about it."

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