Sheetz college c-store: a lab for millennial tastes

More than a dozen dispensers churn “gourmet” frozen beverages in cartoon-color flavors. A vaulted proscenium frames a stone pizza oven, open kitchen and barista-manned coffee bar. Cherry-oak tile leads to an “Order Fresh Food Here” pillar of flat screens, scrolling through still shots of pastrami sandwiches, cheeseburgers topped with fried eggs and breakfast burritos, available to order from dawn to midnight at self-serve kiosks. This isn’t the latest high-tech food court or college cafeteria; it’s a convenience store on the campus of West Virginia University.

A new twin-tower, 900-bed housing unit on the Morgantown, W. Va., campus proved the perfect opportunity for Sheetz to develop the concept—a foot-traffic reliant c-store without the gas pumps. Opened in March, Sheetz considers it a laboratory to hone the company’s future as a food-first cafe. A second location is planned on the Penn State University campus in State College, Pa.

With channel-blurring forcing a tighter bond between convenience goods and foodservice, the new Sheetz store could be an incarnation of things to come. Here are six features of the forward-looking location that other operators can apply to catch the eye of millennials.