Our Favorite Kind of Beach

The beaches we like have one thing in common. Can you guess what it is?

Summer Magic is in the air. For a lot of people that means heading to the beach to cool off, play games, swim, grill and eat food—the beach is pretty much the place for fun summer stuff.

Everyone has their own idea of the perfect beach, which in turn influences their favorite beach activities. Americans are really lucky in this regard; they have a phenomenally varied range of beachscapes to choose from.

For the purposes of this week’s blog, we’re limiting our beach survey to an SSCS favorite: those within easy access of a c-store. After hours in the sun and surf, you’re probably going to need a c-store for drinks, snacks, hats, towels…and probably more. Let’s look at a few.

The Alabama Gulf Coast
The Gulf of Mexico may not capture the public’s imagination the way Zuma Beach, Miami Beach, or Martha’s Vineyard does, but it is home to no shortage of noteworthy beaches, especially the stretch of coast that runs from New Orleans in the west, to Pensacola, Florida in the east, passing through Mississippi and Alabama along the way. Here the sand tends to be bright white and the water glitters turquoise. (It’s also an area with some pretty good seafood, too.)

Along this shoreline you’ll find any number of c-stores, but we’re going to focus on the Alabama town of Gulf Shores and its sister city, Orange Beach, each part of an uninterrupted 32 mile stretch of coast. In the middle of this warm paradise you’ll find a familiar name: Circle K Orange Beach.

Wailua, Kauai, Hawaii
Hawaii is synonymous with beaches. Waikiki on the island of Oahu gets a lot of attention. So does the ubiquitous ABC convenience store chain. Store units can be found virtually anywhere in the state, on any island, although only a handful are actually on the beach.

One of these, Island County Markets, is right on the eastern shore of Kauai, within walking distance of Waipouli State Beach. You’d never guess it was an ABC, though. This is the chain’s “lifestyle market,” brand, which emphasizes local merchandise and gifts, and specializes in freshly prepared meals, including herb roasted prime rib on Thursdays. That sounds pretty good after a long, relaxing swim.

Avila Beach, California
California and the Pacific Coast conjure up images of endless beaches, mostly of the SoCal variety with warm water and warmer weather. It’s to be expected. Southern California is the place that launched a thousand beach movies, and it’s also where surf music was invented (which goes hand in hand with the invention of the solid body electric guitar, also in SoCal).

The thing about SoCal beaches, though, is that they are usually quite hectic. If you move further north up Highway 101 to San Luis Obispo County, you’ll find a host of sleepier beach towns like Pismo Beach, Oceano, and Grover Beach. Today we’re looking at Avila Beach, to the north of all these, a summer haven for Cal Poly students. In recent years Avila Beach has seen its share of development. One of the nicest outcomes is Avila Market, which like so many other modern c-stores incorporates a fast casual restaurant and interesting local merchandise. What makes the store so special, though, is it is just a quick walk from one of the most low key beaches in the state.

Narragansett Town Beach, Rhode Island
For our last selection, we’re travelling to the Northeast, home to such famous Atlantic Coast beach resorts as Nantucket and Cape Cod. Again, we’re going for something that gets just a little less run in the travel press, but it is also unique in that it is surrounded completely by a town, in this case Narragansett, Rhode Island.

East Coast Surfers find the 19-acre beach a haven, and the mile-long stretch of sand is a short walk from the center of town. It’s an interesting walk. You’ll find a classic eastern lighthouse, and towering castle-like structures from the turn of the 20th Century. But most important of all, you’ll find a pair of convenience stores in the thick of it, a Cumberland Farms and a Season’s Corner Market. These are chains born in the east, and they fit perfectly into New England’s coastal sensibilities.

Summertime is one of the busiest times of year for convenience stores, even those that don’t do business within sight of a body of water. If your vacation time sales transactions are on the rise, but you think the details might be escaping your notice, the right back office technology might be exactly what you need. Not only can our Computerized Daily Book process all the different information that passes through your store, we can keep track of it too, and present it to you in displays that put everything in the right context: profitability. If you’d like to learn a little more about what SSCS software might be able to do for you, give us a call at (800) 972-7727. Summer’s a lot more fun when you are shoring up your bottom line!