As the COVID-19 continues the Reid Stores/Crosby’s is rolling out safety measures like plexiglass barriers and face shields, while supporting the community through a partnership with ConnectLife, New York’s only community blood center.
Doug Galli, vice president and general manager for Reid Stores and Crosby’s, and the board chairman of the National Advisory Group (NAG) sat down with CStore Decisions (CSD) to share how COVID-19 is challenging the c-store business and how his chain is responding
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The company operates 82 convenience stores, plus one freestanding Tim Horton’s — 70 of the retail locations are in western New York and 13 are in northwestern Pennsylvania. Both New York and Pennsylvania have shelter-in-place /self-quarantine type rules in effect.
New York acted first, extending all rules immediately to the entire state, while Pennsylvania began in the East part of the state and slowly extended rules regarding non-essential workers across the state. Galli said both states are currently operating in a similar fashion.
“As far as the impact to our business, it’s been pretty consistent across all the sites,” he said. “Our sites that are on an expressway are being impacted more than most of our sites are in small rural towns. They are being impacted, but not as much as expressway sites.”
Crosby’s stores felt the impacted of COVID-19 quarantine rules immediately at the beginning of March — first with a sales boost as customers stocked up to prepare to self quarantine. After customers cleared the shelves at supermarkets and dollar stores, they hit the convenience stores for toilet paper and cleaning spray.
“We saw a lift and even in our food sales,” Galli said. “We have a very strong pizza and made-to-order sub program, and even our food sales were impacted (positively).”
But after the rush, food sales overall declined. While take-home subs and pizzas are up, breakfast sandwich sales and single slice pizza sales fell when customers stopped commuting. Beer sales, however climbed as bars closed. The other tobacco products (OTP) category including cigars, snuff and e-cigarettes is up as well, as are bread sales — bright spots in a challenging sales environment.
Keeping Employees Safe
When COVID-19 began making headline news, Crosby’s stores immediately enhanced their cleaning procedures, rolling out new checklists to stores, outlining a cleaning routine that needed to be followed every two hours, as well as a hand washing schedule for employees every 20-30 minutes.
“They’re wearing gloves now throughout the day,” Galli said. “But even if you change your gloves, you’ve got to wash your hands right away.”
On April 6, the chain installed Plexiglas shields at the checkouts for the associates, and also sent plastic face shields to the stores. Employees are also allowed to wear masks, and after the Centers of Disease and Prevention (CDC) on mask guidance, the Reid Stores/Crosby’s is now purchasing disposable masks that district supervisors will have on hand soon for store associates if they wish to wear them. Hand sanitizer has been added to the checkout for associates, along with hand lotion to protect hands from the increased washing.
Crosby’s is also giving back to store associates, who now receive a free lunch or dinner while they work, and the chain is offering increased flexibility around schedules to accommodate parents, etc., as everyone adapts to a new normal.
Serving the Community
Crosby’s is also taking its commitment to the communities it serves seriously at this time. The chain has always offered free coffee to police, but during the week of April 6, it began offering a free any-size coffee or cappuccino to all medical workers as well.
“We’re also developed a partnership with the organization called ConnectLife,” Galli said. “ConnectLife collects 80% of all the blood donations in western New York. It’s an eight-county area of western New York. So obviously blood donations are down considerably. They reached out to us because our stores are perfectly situated, and we started a number of blood drives in our parking lots with their blood mobiles.”
On April 8, 60 blood donors arrived at one site — 37 of which were new donors, and customers were emailing wanting the service to return. ConnectLife noted it will be able to save 180 local lives thanks to drives held at Crosby’s.
“They’re already scheduling multiple trips back to some of these sites, and everybody that donates gets a $5 Crosby’s gift card as well. So that’s turned out to be a very good partnership with them in the communities that we serve because a lot of our communities where our stores (operate) are small rural towns,” Galli said.
Advice to Other Retailers
Galli urged other convenience store retailers to take advantage of the information available from trade organizations and trade press regarding best practices during COVID-19. “We’re part of the New York State Association of Convenient Stores. We’re part of the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association. We get daily updates from CSD Magazine and NAG.”
He also recommends reaching out to other convenience store retailers and staying in touch, as the situation continues to change rapidly.
Listen to the full podcast with Doug Galli here: