General Store Roots and an Eye on the Future (Fast Stop Part 2)
SSCS customer Fast Stop provides a look back on the industry, while portending its future.
If you read Part 1 of SSCS’s customer profile[1] on Fast Stop of New London, North Carolina, you got a first look at a family-owned, inter-generational independent that’s an institution in its spread out, rural market. It’s operated out of the same building since 1941, first as a traditional country general store, and evolving through the times into what it is today: a modern convenience store positioned for the future.
That being said, Fast Stop retains the flavor of its general store roots in that it offers a broader range of merchandise than most. It’s a matter of meeting customer demand. Doing so successfully plays a big role in the store’s continued popularity and growth.
“Many of our customers don’t have a Wal-Mart or other big box store down the street, so we fill that need where we can,” notes David Palmer, co-owner of the store with his wife, Shelly. “Our percentage of return customers is very high; it’s the opposite of a c-store on a main street with a lot of drive by business. Fast Stop has more of a neighborhood feel.”
The store’s return business is off-the-charts, and you can see it on weekday mornings. Locals make it a habit to come by Fast Stop for a fresh, hot breakfast on their way to work. Palmer estimates that the deli represents about 25 percent of his revenue; the store sells 180-200 breakfast sandwiches each Monday through Friday. It’s an indication of where the Palmers have put their emphasis, from the first: quality food choices for their customers.
“There were a lot of challenges in taking over a convenience store with no warning,” says Palmer, “but it didn’t take long to figure out that food and food service had a lot of profit potential if you did it right. That’s when we started expanding our fresh deli and breakfast selections, and partnered with companies like Hunt Brothers Pizza.”
Fast Stop also creates customer demand by stocking food specialties from regional vendors when the opportunity arises, whether it be Apple Wedge Cider, a shipment of sweets from the Albemarle Sweet Shop or a delivery of fresh oysters on the shell in 100 count boxes from Chesapeake Bay. It all adds to the strong local identity the business has built up.
However, If upping the store’s food game was the first project taken on by the Palmers, the need to do more with c-store technology was next. Previous owner Johnnie Hatley had computerized, but used the system sparingly. He focused mostly on inputting items prone to rapid price changes, not getting the benefit of the complete package.
There was more to it than that, though. As David began to learn and more completely use the software, he began to run up against its limitations. He, and son, Branson, started to look for something more suited to the demands of his store. Eventually, the family settled on SSCS’s Computerized Daily Book (CDB) back office system.
“The SSCS software had so many useful features, it just dwarfed what we had before,” says David. “It was designed so we could improve daily operations right away, but it also had another level of management tools that could give us more in-depth information once we got going, so we could really fine-tune our approach to making money.”
SSCS’s handheld scanning solution, which was more powerful and fully featured than what Fast Stop had been using, was largely responsible for the immediate benefit of the software: it provided accurate delivery counts.
“After SSCS, we started seeing that some vendors had been shorting us—pretty consistently, too,” says David. “Before, we might miss that we were being charged fully for a bread delivery missing two or three loaves. Once we started scanning the delivery and letting the computer match the result to the invoice, surprises on orders got a lot less frequent.”
That the software can tighten up invoicing this way indicates the power of CDB’s item level approach to inventory management, which provides a magnified look at c-store pricing and pricing-related activity, with responsive, flexible controls over pricing changes.
“We experienced the full power of the SSCS system when COVID hit,” David says. “The price changes were coming at us constantly, which meant we had to constantly print out new shelf tags at the scanner to match. But we kept up, thanks to the software, and didn’t get behind on profit. It helped that we could deploy price changes to multiple items with a click of the button. That’s when I found out it pays to get every item you possibly can into the system.”
Fast Stop is a delightful combination of regional retail tradition that, at the same time, has positioned itself to have a long, successful future through embracing new ideas, processes, and technologies. Here’s to the next 83 years!
[1] And if you haven’t, please read it first.
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