Alimentation Couche-Tard, Convenience Store Decisions’ 2007 Convenience Store Chain of the Year, continues to respond to consumer demand with its introduction of Couche-Tard Menu stores. With their bright and welcoming self-service environment, these stores feature not only the traditional products they are known for, but also a vast range of brand name prepared meals, warm pastries and a selection of the best specialty coffees, freshly brewed.

Customers will be treated to a wide variety of foods: sushi, hearty soups, mousses, salads, smoothies, high-end Asian and Italian dishes, pizzas, pasta sauces, lasagna, wraps, breakfast sandwiches, fajitas, sorbets, yogurts, low calorie meals, desserts, Viennese pastries and fresh-brewed cappuccinos, espressos and lattes.

Couche-Tard Menu stores have been organized around a central counter. They include a section with standard Couche-Tard products as well as one with ready-to-eat products. A food advisor in each store is available to help customers with their selections while ensuring that the products offered meet Couche-Tard’s rigorous quality and freshness criteria. This unique concept is aimed at responding to the lifestyles of customers who seek high quality, ready-to-eat foods at prices competitive with those in supermarkets, said Michel Bernard, vice president of eastern Canada operations for Couche-Tard.

“Innovation is at the heart of our new offer,” Bernard said. “We are proud to provide our many loyal customers with practical solutions in the form of exclusive, innovative products, more than 80% of which come from Quebec. Customers can take advantage of this new service at all times of the day, whether they are picking up lunch close to their workplace or dinner on their way home.”

Couche-Tard has spent $2 million renovating stores in order to implement its new concept, and the model is initially being launched in eight stores in the Greater Montreal Region. This strategy will help ensure that the Couche-Tard management team at the company’s head office in Laval immediately receives customer comments and suggestions, allowing any necessary improvements to be made before the progressive integration of the concept into more stores in the Couche-Tard network.

Couche-Tard operates 5,690 convenience stores, 3,440 of which sell motor fuels, in 30 states and three Canadian provinces.