What Does the Travel Center of the Future Look Like?

As part of the foodservice equation, Flinn touched upon the "explosion" of made-to-order (MTO) beverages. "Why is it exploding? Eighty percent margin. It's pretty easy to create a menu and operate it. Everybody's getting into it," she said, calling out Sheetz Inc., GetGo Café+Market and Wawa Inc. as standouts in made-to-order beverages.

[Read more: It's Time to Modernize C-store Foodservice]

With MTO beverages an emerging trend in making a convenience store a foodservice destination, Flinn noted that it is not only about creating delicious, nonalcoholic made-to-order drinks, but also alcoholic beverages. When GetGo Café+Market introduced alcoholic MTO beverages, sales topped $2 million in two months, she highlighted.

So, how will travel center operators know if they're on a journey to becoming a restaurant? Flinn offered the following benchmarks:

• Your culinary team is your No. 1 asset. You spend as much time on that as you do building the capability within your fuel team, your operations team and your merchandising team.
• Sixty-five percent of your nonfuel sales are fresh food and beverage, not packaged, and you're on your way to close to 70% and 80%. 
• Twenty-five percent of your own personal time is spent in test kitchens and talking to your customers about food.

"You are a restaurant. A majority of your customers think of you as a destination for food and beverages," she added. "You're getting your hands into, and being taught, and actually understanding the culinary opportunities and beverage opportunities in your business."

Setting Your Business Apart

As for additional areas that will impact truck stop and travel center operators that want to be distinctive now and into the future, Flinn predicts:

Local: Identifying local as "a huge opportunity for the travel center industry," she pointed out that partnerships with local farmers markets can help operators become destinations for food, beverages, crafts and other merchandise.

Mouthwatering: The industry veteran called out Dom's Kitchen & Market, a hybrid convenience store and grocery retailer that uses refrigerated bunker cases to bring together easy navigation to products and appealing aesthetics to create a shopper experience where food is the main focus. 

"One of my suggestions to you in terms of thinking about how to future-proof your stores is actually to add more refrigerated cases on the floor. You already are a destination for single-serve beverages and food, so provide more floor space and you'll entice customers by bringing food and beverages together," she told NATSO Connect attendees.

Discovery: The consultant suggested operators think about discovery and the role it can play in being a future-centric format. Using Aldi as an example, Flinn showcased how the discount grocer is focused on creating a brand that is as much about giving customers what they want in terms of price as it is about providing unique finds. For example, the retailer features an Aldi Finds section in its stores and online where customers can discover unique and specialty merchandise.

"When I visit your stores across the country, I miss discovery. I see walls and walls of electronics. I see walls of crystal figurines and I say to myself, 'What is really special about this travel center and where I am?'" Flinn told the audience.

"Retail-tainment": Buc-ee's is a prime example of "retail-tainment," a combination of retail and entertainment. Whether it's a portable campfire stationed in the front of the store or a Buc-ee's Beaver phone holder, the travel center operator does food, local, discovery and retail-tainment well, Flinn said. 

[Read more: Buc-ee's Sets Opening Date for First Colorado Location]

"Can all of us become Buc-ee's? No, we can't. But there is an element that makes you super special in terms of your local areas. There's a way that even a chain like Costco that operates across the country has figured out how to put pecans in Georgia stores vs. other products potentially in a Kentucky or Tennessee store," she said. "There are ways to switch up your merchandising that makes it local, that makes it shoppable from trip to trip and destination to destination."

Future-Proofing Today for Tomorrow's Business

As truck stops and travel centers begin to function as restaurants, and with the future fuel mix in flux, operators need to be intentional and think about what their image will be down the line. Many industry leaders today are setting themselves up to function like a restaurant on the inside while continuing to welcome customers as a travel stop on the outside by incorporating cantilever canopies into their design.

"You're building facilities now that are going to last for the next 30 or 40 years. Shouldn't your canopy and potentially your building structure be something you're thinking about?" Flinn posed. 

She pointed to Pennsylvania-based Wawa, whose footprint spans the length of the East Coast. The convenience retailer is intentional with its design, using a New England-inspired facade and cantilever canopy to position itself as a restaurant. 

"[Wawa] is not your typical c-store. Because when you see that flat canopy, what do you think? Even though you might not be able to see the brand on it, you think it's a gas station or a truck stop," Flinn explained.

When it comes to future-proofing their businesses through design and function, she encouraged operators to consider other multi-occasional formats that could compete with grocers, QSRs and other retailers that may be moving into their sector and trying to capture their share.

"My suggestion to you is think about real estate and share in your marketing area, and potentially open your eyes to different formats that might capture that customer with your brand and your offer, and help keep some of these other people away from stealing your share," Flinn concluded.

NATSO Connect 2024 took place Feb. 18-22 in Orlando at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resort.