When it comes to delivering product versatility, portability and good taste, you can’t beat fresh chicken and a well-kept roller grill. Retailers and other experts reveal how these two foodservice programs enable them to satisfy customer cravings from the morning until night.
By Marilyn Odesser-Torpey, Associate Editor
The old adage goes that people eat with their eyes first, but that’s only half the story. They also consume with their noses, which is why the aroma of cooking chicken is a strong selling point for retailers.
In fact, the mouthwatering smell of frying chicken wafting through the store and even out to the forecourt is usually the first experience customers have with your foodservice offering, explained Dr. Nancy Caldarola, general manager of the Food Training Group, a hospitality industry consulting firm based in Roswell, Ga.
“Chicken is one of the most attractive hand-held foods for people,” Caldarola said. “It is also the ultimate all-American comfort food.”
The research firm Packaged Facts recently reported that sales of poultry are expected to increase over the next five years, with one contributing factor being the cost advantages over many other types of meat. Consumers are also influenced by health authorities, such as the American Heart Association, which encourage consumption of poultry as an alternative to red meat.
With so many different forms, from bone-in pieces to fingers, strips, tenders, livers and gizzards, as well as its ability to be prepared in so many different ways and take on so many flavor profiles, chicken is one of the most versatile and widespread appealing foodservice products a c-store can offer, Caldarola said.
She pointed out that chicken can be a strong seller all day beginning with breakfast.
“Look at any Chik-fil-A in the morning and you’ll see lines wrapped around the block for their chicken biscuits,” said Caldarola.
Chicken is also a great choice for c-stores because of the incremental sales of side dishes such as corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and, of course, just-baked biscuits, she noted.
In addition to wanting a meal or snack, a growing number of consumers are becoming concerned about how the chickens are raised, Caldarola noted. KFC announced in April that it will stop serving chickens raised on antibiotics in all of its U.S. locations by the end of 2018. Other major fast feeders such as Wendy’s, Subway, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s have already stopped using them or have pledged to stop using them in the future.
IMPROVING POULTRY
Carl Hitt, Jr., director of retail operations for Wi-Not Stop retail stores with 12 stores in northern Virginia, five of which have full delis that sell chicken, said featuring poultry that’s fresh—never frozen—sourced locally and breaded on site provides the company’s program a big advantage.
Hitt also agreed with Caldarola that fried bone-in chicken says home cooking to many consumers.
“Not too many people are making bone-in fried chicken at home anymore, so they’re looking for that flavor from us,” said Hitt.
At Wi-Not Stop stores, chicken accounts for a big—and growing—part of overall foodservice sales. In addition to selling chicken throughout the day, the chain sells a lot of family-size dinners as well as volume orders from churches and other organizations totaling some 400 pieces.
Best sellers for the stores are bone-in breasts and wings. About 75% of Wi-Not Stop customers who purchase chicken also buy sides to go with it, Hitt said.
Customers at Harrison, Ark.-based White Oak Station convenience stores like choosing their own pieces of chicken and sides from the hot service line. Three of the chain’s 28 locations in Texas, Arkansas and Missouri offer Krispy Krunchy chicken and 10 others White Oak’s own signature brand fried chicken.
“When they can see and smell the chicken on the line they know that it’s fresh,” said Chief Operating Officer Rodney Thomas. “Competition in the food business is more than just your next convenience store, so doing things right and being fresh are the only options to foodservice longevity.”
Some of the White Oak stores also offer rotisserie-cooked chicken.
“We want to give our customers alternatives and several of our locations do very well with the rotisserie chicken,” Thomas explained. “But fried chicken is still the No. 1 favorite with our customers.”
Chicken strips are the best sellers throughout the day, followed by bone-in breasts and wings. At dinner time, many customers choose White Oak’s “meal deal” consisting of chicken, potato wedges and biscuit. They can also build their own customized meals by choosing from a number of other sides.
For a lighter meal or snack any time of day or evening, the roller grill can provide a wide variety of items at inexpensive prices. As always, it is the perfect home base for hot dogs, but, in recent years, food producers and retailers have begun to recognize the greater potential of this cooking and merchandising workhorse, creating items that span meal and snack occasions, flavor profiles and even cultures.
ROLLER GRILL SALES
At LaCrosse, Wis.-based Kwik Trip, one roller grill per store is not enough to hold the 12 or so different items that are featured each day from a total selection of about 30. Each store has two grills—one for meat products such as hot dogs ( including 10:1 and 4:1 Angus beef), cheddarwurst and brats, the other for snack items such as egg rolls, Tornados and RollerBites, said Paul Servais, retail food service director of the chain, which operates 515 stores in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
“Roller grill items are usually the most portable and easiest to eat on the go and in the car,” he noted.
There’s never a dull day on the grill where customers might find such exotic delicacies as pork chile verde or Korean beef barbecue tornados, sriracha jack or gouda chicken smoked sausage, Guinness beer brats or pork and vegetable egg rolls. Limited time only (LTO) items move in and out quickly, rotating one meat and one snack item every four weeks, creating consumer excitement.
“Guests like how we feature hot, spicy, off-the-wall and trendy items as LTOs,” said Servais.
In a recent Mintel survey of customers aged 18 or older who have purchased a roller grill item from a c-store in the past three months, 35% of the respondents said that they would like to see Latin roller grill items such as chorizo and quesadillas. Thirty-four percent said they would like to see Asian items such as egg rolls.
The grills at Kwik Trip begin cooking first thing in the morning with an assortment of sausage, egg and cheese or French toast and sausage tornados; breakfast sausage links and pork, egg and cheese RollerBites.
“While the majority of our morning business is in breakfast sandwiches, the roller grill just offers another option to our customers,” Servais said.
Forty-three percent of Mintel survey respondents said they were interested in breakfast roller grill items. Forty-two percent said they would like to see a variety of condiments/dipping sauces and 35% said a variety of fresh toppings. According to Servais, Kwik Trip has a “huge” condiment bar with fresh toppings including tomato, lettuce, onion, relish, sauerkraut and pickles.
Value-minded consumers also look to the roller grill for good deals. At Kwik Trip, Tornados, eggs rolls and RollerBites are sold at two-for prices. Every weekend, hot dogs, which usually sell for $1.79, are offered at $1.29. And the c-store often bundles the 10:1 hot dog with a drink.
HOT IN ATLANTA
At Atlanta-based RaceTrac Petroleum convenience stores, the roller grill remains an important foodservice program, “yet still presents us with opportunities for future growth,” said Michael Elliott, category manager of hot foods for the chain, with 445 stores in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
“We truly believe this offer to be a ‘destination driver’ for guests to visit our stores,” he explained. “We have seen year-over-year growth in this category for the past five years, and still forecast further growth in the coming years,” he explained.
At RaceTrac, roller grill sales are impressive 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Mornings are particularly busy as guests just off the night shift are looking for dinner at 6 a.m. and others purchase items from the grill to reheat for lunch later in the day.
For guests looking for traditional breakfast foods, the stores carry Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage links as well as “an authentic pork tamale” that is a popular early day item. There are also revolving LTOs.
“While many of these breakfast flavors sell well in the morning, we still see strong sales on these items throughout the day as well,” Elliott said.
Although RaceTrac tends to see spikes in sales around the breakfast and lunch dayparts, the other “in between” times—which the company considers “snack occasions”—also show a steady stream of sales,” said Elliott.
Each of the RaceTrac stores has three to six roller grills displaying anywhere from five to 12 unique flavors of items. Throughout the day, the best selling item is the Nathan’s Famous 100% All Beef Hot Dog. Other hot items are taquitos, RollerBites and tamales, traditional corn husk-wrapped and stuffed with seasoned pork, that are unique to RaceTrac, Elliott noted.
LTOs are rotated into the roller grill mix on a quarterly basis. There is a permanent LTO spot on the grill so these items don’t replace an everyday item.
“We have guests who eat from the roller grill every day, so offering new products is important to them,” he said. “Our approach to LTOs is to feature something a little different that might not make it as an everyday item, but certainly drives excitement and trial on the grill.”
To allow guests to customize their items, in all of RaceTrac’s new and remodeled stores, there is an expanded Taste Works toppings bar, which includes anywhere from eight to 12 toppings delivered to the stores on a daily basis. Among the selections are fresh diced tomatoes, onions, lettuce, jalapeños, dill pickle chips, banana peppers, coleslaw, pico de gallo and sour cream.
On the value side, the stores sell their roller grill items at an “everyday low price” of $1.69 or two for $2.50. Bundles are also introduced sporadically to keep things interesting for guests and encourage them to try new things, Elliott said.
Based on its survey results, Mintel suggested that convenience store retailers be on the look out for roller grill items that consumers may perceive as “clean” and more healthful. Fifty-seven percent of survey respondents said “convenience foods have too many artificial ingredients,” 34% said they prefer no artificial ingredients and 36% said they would like to see items with no preservatives, creating a new opportunity for c-stores.