Gas Stations Up Their Game
More convenience stores are becoming luxurious oasis with craft beer, fancy cheeses and upscale foodservice.
Feb 01, 2019
OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – Barrels & Vines offers Epicurean cheeses, a large craft beer selection and a candy-filling station—inside a Shell gas station in Royal Oak, Mich. The upscale convenience store is one of many fancy new locations that seek to wow and awe customers, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Barrels & Vines has 7,100 square feet of space. “We want to make it the local one-stop shop as well as a destination store,” said co-owner Ken Lucia. “It took us three months to fill the store with all of the items that we have, and we are still evolving.”
Convenience stores like Barrels & Vines aren’t that unusual and fit right into the history of convenience stores. For example, during the 1950s, many gas stations added restaurants and motels to cater to travelers along the burgeoning U.S. interstates. Others became quirky roadside attractions to encourage consumers to stop by.
Today’s upscale convenience stores are following in those footsteps. “It gives someone a reason to go to the gas station beyond price,” said Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of strategic industry initiatives. “It’s good for retailers because they can become famous for something beyond having to have a war on gas prices every day.”
In West Bloomfield, Mich., Safeway Oil Co. recently renovated the store attached to a Shell station, turning it into a two-story, 3,700-square-foot location with a polished interior and limestone architecture.
