Jigar Patel grew up in the convenience retail business. His first store was an unbranded location “in the middle of nowhere with an apartment upstairs,” the Alabama retailer recalled. “I’d work it from open to close.” This is a very interesting article featured in NACS magazine this month.
Now, after purchasing the Fastime brand 3 years ago, Patel owns five stores, the flagship location of which is in Daphne, Alabama, and he’s about to break ground on his sixth in Century, Florida.
When he bought the brand, Patel saw potential in the Fastime fan base and its Southern food. But the stores had a lot of room for improvement, and so Patel embarked on the process of remodeling the stores and upgrading them to high-quality c-stores, starting with his first c-store in Bay Minette and the Daphne location.
The Daphne store “really shined after the renovations,” Patel said. “We gave the store some TLC, made it better and more efficient, and we will rebrand our other stores to Fastime.”
Executing the Vision
Patel’s vision as an owner-operator is to provide the best experience possible to his customers. That experience starts before the customer pulls into the parking lot: “The moment they lay their eyes on the price sign on the road, it has to make them want to pull in,” Patel said.
Additionally, Patel wants customers to see that the forecourt is clean and that the store looks inviting and appealing from the outside. “The inside of the store needs to be well lit and the windows shouldn’t be blocked by signage. That’s a pet peeve of mine.”
It took a lot of work to make updates to the stores Patel acquired. Around the exterior, Patel updated the price sign to an LED, redid the landscaping, added new canopy lights and new pumps with an updated logo, plus upgraded camera systems and the store’s exterior lighting.
“Inside, we redid all the counters, shelving and kitchen appliances and other equipment,” he described. “We made the fountain options available to customers and brought in bean-to-cup machines so people have fresh coffee all day.”
“We tore the kitchen apart down to the studs,” he added. The team also brought in new kitchen equipment and changed menus to monitors.
The restrooms also needed an upgrade, so Patel spruced them up by replacing the sinks and other fixtures.
“If I don’t feel like using the restrooms at my store, then no customer will want to use them,” Patel said. “We clean them every hour and we pride ourselves on having clean restrooms.”
Fastime’s Foodservice
More than 40% of Fastime’s sales come from food. “I have a lot of experience on the food side and so I knew foodservice would be profitable if it was done right. We also knew there would be more opportunity if we could make it even better,” he said.
Patel prefers having his own menu and the flexibility to change up items rather than a branded foodservice program.
For more on Patel’s Fastime stores and its foodservice program, continue reading in the October 2024 issue of NACS Magazine. or visit Renovating the Store—and Menu | NACS (convenience.org)
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