Village Pantry makes quick shopping trips a pleasure
When customers are in a hurry and all they want is gasoline, a gallon of milk and a donut 'n coffee to go, a convenience store that offers fresh bakery products is the exact right combination.
By Carol Meres Kroskey, baker editor
Although it seems as if the corner grocery store is a concept whose time has passed, the Village Pantry, a convenience-store-chain subsidiary of Indianapolis-based Marsh Supermarkets, is a modern-day substitute that works well. Not only do Village Pantry stores carry the usual array of convenience-store items, they also offer a selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, some home-meal-replacement items, and best of all, bakery products made right on the premises.
Village Pantry executives see on-premise baking as an important point of differentiation for the 184-unit convenience-store chain. Gail Wood, foodservice marketing manager for Village Pantry stores, says, "We take advantage of our ability to produce fresh bakery products, because no one else does. Although often a Village Pantry is located near a Marsh Supermarket, we offer many completely different products, as well as a different shopping experience. Customers who want to stock up will go to a Marsh Supermarket. Our customers come to Village Pantry to get basic staples, or to make a quick stop."
How to squeeze a bakery into a convenience store
Donuts are fried on the premises at Village Pantry stores. The stores purchase frozen-dough donuts, which are then thawed and proofed before being fried and glazed. Although the most popular variety is a glazed yeast-raised ring, other fried items also are prepared on the premises. For example, a Miami Danish is popular. This pastry is actually a fried Danish twist, a light, but rich alternative to yeast-raised donuts that isn't found in many other stores.
Although the bakery showcases don't feature a lot of seasonal specials, holiday products do add variety. For example, Gail says, "We do bring in paczki for sale before Ash Wednesday, and for St. Valentine's Day, we feature heart-shaped yeast-raised donuts, as well as cherry cake donuts."
Considering that space is at a premium in a convenience store, it follows that the production area must be compact and well-organized. "In 1976, when Village Pantry first added on-premise frying," says Gail, "we started with an 8-ft. production unit designed specifically for a convenience store. The unit combined a proofer, fryer and glazer in one unit. In addition, we put a 4-ft. showcase in the store. But fresh products, including cookies, brownies and Danish, have proven so popular that some of our stores have up to 12 ft. of display cases. These store also devote as much as 12 ft. behind the counters to allow for production."
That's not to say that the production area is spacious. The compact units make use of every square inch of space. While larger stores with bigger displays to fill have separate proofers and fryers, smaller stores still depend on combination makeup units. Undercounter storage units help to maximize the available space, and convection ovens do the baking while taking up a minimum of square footage.
The bakers start early to prepare the bakery cases for a breakfast rush that begins at about 6 a.m. About half of the products are fried at the beginning of the bakers' shift at about 11 p.m., while the other half are prepared just before they leave at 7 a.m. Because the Village Pantry stores are open 24 hours, says Gail, "we like to have a stock of all the items so customers always have something to buy. But we do break down the cases at about 7 or 8 p.m., leaving only the products that have a 2-day shelf life."
Certified bakers ensure continuity of quality
Because the bakers are responsible for both production and merchandising, Gail notes that the Village Pantry approaches training from a slightly different point of view. "We used the journey baker certification program sponsored by the Retailer's Bakery Association as a starting point for our own certified baker program," she says. "We developed our own criteria for the Village Pantry bakery program and worked with bakery employees to see that they met the requirements. As an incentive for the bakers to achieve the certification requirements, certified bakers are paid higher wages and receive full-time benefits. For us, the payoff has been better continuity because we saw reduced employee turnover."
Currently, about half the Village Pantry stores have a certified baker on staff. When a baker achieves certification, he or she is awarded a certificate at a ceremony that recognizes the effort it took and the contribution the baker makes to store profitability. The certificate then is displayed prominently in the store, giving customers the assurance that its bakery products will have consistent quality. In addition, all the certified bakers are honored at an annual ceremonial dinner in the fall.
It's not easy to become a certified baker for Village Pantry. Gail notes that in addition to learning how to make the products correctly and consistently, the bakers must learn about gross profit versus stale, and about sales and marketing. "Those requirements are a little more demanding than an in-store bakery's," Gail says. "At Village Pantry stores, the bakers assist with all the details, from production to paperwork." To help bakers on their way to certification, Village Pantry has developed guides that enable the bakers to judge production needs so the showcases are neither over- or understocked.
Grab-and-go essential at convenience stores
While supermarkets have tried to make shopping more convenient, the essence of shopping at a C-store is the ability to get in and out quickly. So, although the self-service displays of the bakery products allow customers to pick and choose among different varieties, in the early morning, the displays also include prepackaged donuts in boxes of a dozen. Because the glazed raised rings are most popular, most of the dozen-packs consist of only these donuts. Of course, customers can pack their own dozen-boxes by selecting from the array of products on display.
Other products also are prepackaged in dozen quantities to make self-service faster, including "value" and gourmet cookies, both of which are baked in the store. To give customers a break from these "everyday" products, the bakers also make up eclairs and cream horns. Prepared shells are brought in, and the bakers fill and finish them for the showcases.
The showcases are usually situated right next to the beverage station, which features hot and cold beverages. Bowing to the popularity of espresso-based drinks, Village Pantry stores include cappuccino machines, as well as coffees blended just for the chain.
While Village Pantry stores just don't have the room to offer a full line of fresh-baked products, they've certainly benefitted from the aroma, taste and quality that baking on the premises provides. And, thanks to their certified bakers, Village Pantry will continue to provide quality products any time of day or night.
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Carol Meres Kroskey, baker editor at BakeryOnline, is the award-winning former senior baker editor of Bakery Production and Marketing magazine. Her baking experience includes stints at various retail, hotel and supermarket bakeries as baker and pastry cook. She also spent several years as an experimental baking technician for the American Institute of Baking and as a test baker for The Long Co., a co-op for independent wholesale bakers. Carol can be reached at carol.kroskey@prodigy.net.