C-stores

Noticed in about 10,000 miles of driving so far this summer:

Major C-store operators are spending large sums of cash sprucing up their stores.

Old small grimy-looking C-stores with 3-4 pumps and minimal canopies are being replaced by big bright 5,000-sq.ft. stores with 16-20 pumps under extra wide canopies that sometimes have "connector" canopies so that customers can walk from the pump area into the store without leaving rain cover.

The old generic food options are becoming, in the more modern C-stores, branded food lines. Pre-packaged coffee makers are being replaced with new brewers that grind the beans as it makes the coffee. The more aggressive operators are also hiring commercial chefs to train C-store employees in Tex-Mex, Chinese, Etc., food preparation.

Managers and owners are investing time and money on "customer-centered" training for employees that used to be hired and put to work with little if any coaching how to deal successfully with customers. In the next round of improvements, we'll probably see drive-thru features in C-stores so that parents with kids strapped into car seats can drive by a window to get stuff inside the store, without  even going in the store.

There is a lot of money being invested in these new stores, sort of like all the capital McDonald's has spent recently sprucing up their thousands of stores.  

Next time your are driving across the country, notice Kum & Go, Circle K, Ideal, BP, Shell.

More later.