Research by foodservice contractor Sodexo reveals that 70% of college students visit convenience stores at least a few times a month. 

The customers at campus convenience stores today will be shopping at traditional convenience stores tomorrow, if they’re not already. What do these students want from their convenience store? When do they visit? Why?

Colorado State University in Fort Collins has three convenience stores, all in food deserts. These micromarkets are unmanned and each cost about $28,000 to build, including everything from shelving to security cameras. Two of the three stores are more established and make $700,000 to $1 million during the 28 weeks of the school year, said Patrick St. Clair, senior associate director, residential dining services. 

Contractor Sodexo has its own convenience stores, which operate under the Food Hive brand. These are modular, scalable convenience stores. The contractor developed them specifically for the post-Covid world and did a deep dive into what students wanted. Because the stores are modular, campuses can quickly add one and include their own branding on it. 

“Our insights broadly told us they want a retail experience that’s really convenient,” said Christina LeMin, director of offer development, Sodexo campus. “Students need it to be quick and seamless.” Sodexo learned that students were going off campus for basics such as milk and produce and wanted to take back that market share.

Two years ago, Virginia Tech in Blacksburg opened Xpress Lane Market, an 8,000-square-foot convenience store. “In 2019, we had a huge enrollment surge—1,500 extra students—and wondered how we’d feed all of them,” said John Barrett, associate director of dining services. Thus, Xpress Lane was born. It includes Future Bites, which offers mostly hot subs, and build-your-own breakfast bowls on the weekends.

Busy and Busier

By and large, students are night owls, and as a result, convenience stores often become very busy late at night, when other foodservice options are closed. 

At Towson University in Maryland, Tiger Express is open 24/7, and 56% of transactions occur between 6 p.m. and midnight; 26% from noon to 6 a.m.; and the remaining 18% split evenly between midnight to 6 a.m. and 6 a.m. to noon, said Robert Dolan, vice president, convenience retail, Aramark.

At Colorado State, at least 33% of sales occur between 8 p.m. and midnight. Having a convenience store that can be accessed during off-hours also helps students get the most out of their meal plans, St. Clair said. The school used to have a higher missed-meal rate; at the end of the week, students often hadn’t used all their meal credits. “But once we added these concepts, that dropped,” he said.

The University of Indianapolis (UIndy) extended the hours of its Greyhound Express store this year to midnight because it was seeing a lot of sales just before 10 p.m., said Amy Dugan, resident district manager, Quest Food Management Services. The store also sees strong business between meal periods when other facilities are closed, she said. 

There are two c-stores at the University of Pittsburgh, which see high volumes of traffic between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., especially The Market at Sutherland, which offers fresh pizzas and sandwiches on its hot line. That store is open from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. and the second store, The Market at Towers, is open 24/7. Sunday evenings are also busy, said Tony Loukas, director of operations for foodservice contractor Compass Group, “because the students are all coming back from the weekend and getting milk, bread and peanut butter.”

Xpress Lane at Virginia Tech is open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m., with 19% of business happening between 9 and 10 p.m., and Future Bites now stays open until 10 p.m. (after previously closing at 8 p.m.) due to popularity.

Food and Drink Options

Sodexo’s research reveals a little about what students are looking for from their convenience store. It showed that 57% said variety is highly important, and 47% of respondents look for healthy options.

What’s popular depends on where the store is located. A store near classrooms and a student union offers different items compared with one near dorms. 

But in general, heavy hitters include packaged snacks and beverages (especially energy or natural energy drinks). It’s important to meet dietary needs for gluten-free, halal and vegan students, said LeMin.

It’s also important to keep offering something new and different, such as Bobabam kits and Kodiak bars. LeMin brings in snacks as LTOs to keep things exciting and merchandises those by the register so they’re very visible. The LTOs give students a reason to keep coming back, she said: “Students want whatever’s trending. We make sure we offer staples and things that are new and different.” 

Food Hive stores offer hot and cold foods, including breakfast sandwiches, grain bowls and wings. But Sodexo also brings in some fun items “to surprise and delight,” said LeMin. This might include Solato gelato machines or f’real milkshake machines.

Greyhound Express serves hot food made in-house, such as breakfast sandwiches, burgers and pizzas. The store grew its SKU count from 70 to 250 items two years ago, and the majority of sales are from the freezer, followed by chips and beverages, said Philip Zernia, UIndy’s director of operations. The frozen meals are made in-house, and external brands and ice cream is also a favorite. 

The store has very wide, spacious aisles. “We don’t have the store overly maxed-out, and we want the students to have space,” Dugan said. Shelving is low so customers can see over it, and the checkout area is spread out to allow for multiple queues. The placement of hanging items behind the checkout counter maximizes the space and encourages impulse buys. These might be items such as toothbrushes, mouthwash and new items “so we can gauge the students’ interest, and it’s really in their line of sight,” she said. 

Impulse items that sell well here include laundry detergent, personal care items, snack mixes and fun products such as a local popcorn brand.

The Colorado State micromarkets offer about 350 SKUs, and sushi sales are huge at one of the c-stores. Also popular are fresh foods such as items from the halal cart, an overstuffed peanut butter and jelly sandwich, overnight oats and ice cream. Monster beverages are the best-selling drinks.

The university also uses the c-stores to test new entrees and baked goods because they attract a diverse group of students. If something proves popular, it will be launched at other locations.

The University of Pittsburgh’s The Market at Sutherland carries about 2,000 SKUs, and pizza and hot sandwiches are available from an impinger oven. At The Market at Towers, bestsellers are grab-and-go items, snacks, energy drinks, bottled water and personal care items such as shampoo, bandages and batteries. 

The top SKUs at Xpress Market at Virginia Tech are beverages, ice cream and mac and cheese, followed by chips. It also sells a lot of produce. Higher-priced items are typically placed near the registers for two reasons: impulse sales and the staff’s ability to monitor them for theft.

At Market NXT at the University of Miami, which opened last year, protein bars, protein drinks and energy drinks are popular. Early in the morning, students like kombucha, yogurt and yogurt bars, said Jennifer Villa, assistant director of retail for Chartwells, a division of Compass Group. Trays with nuts, cheese and salami also sell well. “Students are coming in to grab snacks on their way to class and to eat between,” she said.

 Tiger Express has found that students want different types of better-for-you products: high-protein, low-carb, low-sugar, or plant-based items; those containing clean ingredients or probiotics; and functional energy bars and drinks. But, added Dolan, “fun and indulgence is still important as students look to add excitement to their daily diet with tried-and-true favorites.” This includes items such as gummies and Pop-Tarts, he said.

Staying In the Know

Dugan keeps her eye on what’s trending on social media. She also relies heavily on her vendors and listens to student feedback on what they’d like to see in the store. The students also communicate via email.

“Sometimes only one person will be vocal, but then the whole population says they’re thrilled when we introduce something,” she added.

It can be challenging to keep up with the trends, Loukas said. He’s always looking for what’s new “and usually when something is recommended by a student, it flies off the shelves.” His team also tries to stay on top of social media trends “to boost that student engagement to meet them where they are,” he said. 

Some students feature day-in-the-life posts, and if they mention foodservice, Loukas and his team might mention it or share it on their own social media pages. And the school has five student ambassadors who are responsible for getting feedback from other students about what they’re looking for.

“Ensuring we have the right products at the right time in enough quantity is the key formula for us,” said Faye Marcus, director of marketing and guest experience at the University of Miami. She also uses social media, which “gives us a lot of information,” such as which brands are partnering with social media influencers. Or she looks at the big content creators on campuses. “We look for that engagement, and on our dining account we try to interact with anything and repost it,” she said. 

To Staff or Not to Staff?

Greyhound Express is staffed with employees to add a personal touch. “The human interaction piece is working really well,” said Zernia. Having employees in the store means they can report on the performance of items requested by students.

 Food Hive stores are self-checkout, so store hours can be flexible, said LeMin. But cashier-free doesn’t mean person-free; there’s someone in there to help people find things, to fill mobile orders and to greet people. Mobile orders haven’t had much traction yet, she said, because students tend to come into the stores on their way to somewhere. Most transactions deduct money from the students’ meal plans or are cash, she pointed out. Students at the University of Pittsburgh are about evenly split on whether they prefer to check themselves out or have a cashier check them out, said Loukas. “Some like to build a relationship with the staff,” he said. 

The Market at Towers features Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology. “Students love that technology, [though] it takes a little bit to get them used to it,” Loukas said. 

Market NXT at the University of Miami also features Just Walk Out technology. 

Students get into the market by using a QR code from the Grubhub app or by using mobile pay. A $25 temporary hold is placed on their payment method to ensure they have enough for their purchase, which allows entry. Only what they purchase is charged to their account. Students pay with mobile pay such as Apple, Google or Grubhub, or they can use dining dollars.

It didn’t take students long to master the technology, Villa said, and the university has “giant marketing materials” explaining how to use it. Because this store is unmanned, labor costs are less.

Other c-stores at the University of Miami have cashiers, and both models have their strengths, said Villa. “Students have their days where they’re rushing between classes and NXT might be their best option, but we do see them make nice connections and they do like that face-to-face interaction,” she said.

Controlling Theft

Unmanned convenience stores have two big negatives: theft and a lack of hospitality. According to Capital One Shopping, theft is 65% more at self-checkout compared with a traditional checkout. In fact, it’s estimated that 20 million Americans have stolen from these payment terminals.

“The best way to prevent theft is to have an associate present,” said Dolan of Aramark. “However, if a location is unmanned, theft can be deterred by having a store layout and design that is open and well-lit, with high-theft items in highly visible areas. Mirrors, cameras and swipe card access can also help.”

At Virginia Tech, the store was designed to angle the shelving “so the cashier can always see down those aisles” and monitor for theft, said Barrett.

Colorado State initially had big issues with theft. Soon after opening, it moved its camera to a very visible location and added signage to let students know it was there. At first, theft was as high as 20% of the items on shelves, but now it’s down to around 5%. St. Clair said some inspirational signage—such as “Rams Don’t Steal From Rams”—was also helpful. 

The best placement for cameras is where they’re most obvious, said St. Clair. And he upgraded the cameras for the c-stores so one camera now has four lenses for four different angles. They are motion-activated, so they can follow people and see into every corner. They cost about $2,500 per camera “which is inexpensive given what you get from them,” he said.

Today’s students are vocal and want whatever’s trending. They want c-stores to be in convenient locations with convenient hours. Get ready for this demographic, because they’ll be hitting up your stores—maybe at 2 a.m.—very soon.