Limited time offers are helping c-store chains add excitement to the menu.
By Marilyn Odesser-Torpey, Associate Editor
This spring, Stop ‘n Go Convenience Store are spicing up the menu, testing a sriracha southwest sausage pizza with jalapeño peppers and queso in place of marinara sauce.
Summer, the stores’ busiest season, is peak time for introducing limited time offers (LTOs), and the chain is preparing to entice customers with an array of delicious pies.
Stop ‘n Go Convenience Stores’ proprietary pizza programs is a cornerstone of the chain’s foodservice program.
Craig Stanley, foodservice category manager for the Medina, Ohio-based chain noted that every year since pizza was introduced in the mid-1990s, sales have grown. The proprietary program is the top category for foodservice in the stores.
Stop ‘n Go offers seven-inch personal pizzas in five of its 10 stores in northeastern Ohio. The pies are assembled on site and are available for grab and go from a two-foot-long warmhold box. Customers can also phone in orders in advance for pick-up.
Stanley noted that the goal is to add other technology-based options, such as online ordering.
The menu features six core pies and specialties that include buffalo chicken and steak and cheese. Limited time offers (LTOs) are used to test new pizza varieties to determine if they generate enough sales to quality them for addition to the permanent menu, Stanley said. Buffalo chicken, made with ranch dressing and Frank’s Red-hot Sauce, for example, began as an LTO.
For more on Stop ‘n Go’s pizza plans and on how other c-stores are wooing customers with their proprietary pizza programs, check out CSD’s June issue.