chain’s smaller size, each new item takes a while
to move from ideation to store. “One of the hardest
things is that we’re not a big corporation, so we
haven’t the volume or staff for a quick turnaround,”
said Perry Cheatham, COO of U-Gas. “For example,
we’ve been considering adding a soft pretzel stick
to our foodservice, and have been testing that for
a year. If we finally arrive at a product that has the
right taste and price point, then we will run it as an
LTO and see how the customers like it.”
One example is cronuts, that marriage of dough-
nuts and croissants that exploded in popularity on
the East Coast a few years ago. U-Gas worked on its
own version and conducted a trial run of between
90 and 120 days in store. “We put our version of the
cronut on the market fairly quickly, but ended up
throwing a lot of them away because it wasn’t what
our customers wanted to buy,” Cheatham said.
While the cronut was a bust, other items that
started as limited time offers have become a hit with
customers. “We had customers asking for a spicy
chicken biscuit, so we put it on the menu as a LTO,”
Cheatham said. “Sales exploded and we’ve since
moved it to our permanent menu.”
Selling Onsite
When U-Gas first started its foodservice busi-
ness back in 2008, the company wanted to brand
it separately and GiGi’s Café Express came to be.
U-Gas locations have a traditional roller grill onsite,
plus open air coolers, oven and warmers. This allows
U-Gas to see the GiGi’s Café Express branded food
in a variety of ways: for immediate consumption,
grab-and-go and take-home meal replacement.
Everything is made offsite at the commissary and
shipped immediately to stores. “Sandwiches made
in the morning at the commissary will be on store
shelves by that same day,” Cheatham said. “All of our
food has a seven-day shelf life.”
Two U-Gas locations in more rural areas also have
delis that sell fried foods, such as chicken and pizza,
NACS Ideas 2 Go shares innovative ideas from convenience
retailers. In addition to magazine articles, since 1994,
the Ideas 2 Go video program has featured hundreds of
interviews with retailers across the country. To watch these
retailers in action, visit nacsonline.com/ideas2go.
Ideas
U-Gas moved to a
commissary model for the
stores between 2,000 and
2,500 square feet.
Quick Hits
