The Diverse Nature of Sheetz's Customer Population

Abstract

Sheetz is an American chain of convenience stores located primarily in the northeastern part of the United States, and owned primarily by the Sheetz family. Bob Sheetz founded Sheetz, Inc. in 1952 when he purchased one of his father's five dairy stores located in Altoona, Pennsylvania. In 1961, Bob hired his brother Steve to work part-time at the store (Sheetz, 2018). The position of chairman and CEO of the Sheetz company was passed down to various family members, and has been exclusively run by the Sheetz family for over three generations. I have been an employee at the Murrysville Sheetz Store #204 for almost seven months and this paper is about the diversity of the different customers that come into the store everyday. Sheetz is open for twenty fours per day, all seven days a week- even on holidays like Christmas and Easter. The hours of business has attracted a wide variety of consumers, this paper examines and categories a few types of these customers who come into the store on a daily basis, and what they do once they arrive. (If they do anything at all).

The Diverse Nature of Sheetz’s Customer Population

Many high school students decide during their junior or senior years to get a part-time job in order to get working experience before heading off to college. When looking for a new job, Sheetz is a top choice for many as it pays well, the management is friendly, and the work isn’t too complicated. Sheetz is open 24 hours, 7 days a week, and in that time, many can underestimate how diverse the customer population is in terms of who comes into the store. From those who decide to pay for their $1.00 item with a $100 dollar bill, to those who decide to buy cigarettes from the drive through instead of entering the store, Sheetz is like a huge city that attracts all different types of people. However, habits are contagious, and it’s been found that a majority of customers have the same habits that fit nicely into different, broad niches that help when dealing with customer service. From an insider's perspective, there are three main types of customers who frequent Sheetz: The “Hustler”, the “Dawdler”, and the “Loiterer”.

The “Hustler”

One main type of customer that frequents Sheetz is the “Hustler”. According to a study done by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health, most adolescents and adults eat at fast food type restaurants because fast food is quick, the restaurants are easy to get to, and the food tastes good. In the mid- 1990’s, Sheetz added touch-screen ordering, which was described as “a revolution in the business” (TribLive, 2017). Years later, online ordering via an online Sheetz app allowed people to order their meals ahead of time so it would be ready by the time they arrived (Sheetz, 2018). This new way of ordering food opened a huge doorway for people who want Sheetz food and need to grab it in a hurry. Now, customers can now order ahead of time with their phones so that when they stop in, their order is hot and ready to go. It’s been observed that the majority of customers who utilize this process are business workers who come in and out dressed like they work at Wall Street, and teenagers who are running late and need to pick up a coffee or a meal for lunch. Sheetz has also recently created a new skill for Amazon’s Alexa, which is now available using interactive voice activated technology to enable Sheetz customers, for the first time ever, to place an order by using just their voice (Convenience Store Decisions, 2017). From an insider’s perspective, “Hustlers” usually spend a total of 5 minutes at the most in the store- they enter, go to what they want, grab it quickly, stand in line, get their order/ check out, and then leave immediately. Thus, to cater to this need, employees are required by Sheetz to get MTO (Made To Order) meals out to the customer in 5 minutes or less, not allow customers in line to wait more than 90 seconds to check out, and to always have a fully stocked RTE (Ready To Eat) display case for people to choose food items from.

The “Dawdler”

Another main type of customer at Sheetz would be the “Dawdler.” A “Dawdler”, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, is someone who wastes time by doing trifle things (Dictionary, 2018). Customers who go to Sheetz and are classified into this category are usually the police officers who come in early for coffee and donuts, new customers who have never been to a Sheetz before and are too scared to ask how to navigate the MTO food Order Points, and middle schoolers who just like to mess around the store without buying anything. “Dawdlers” take their time no matter where in the store they are: at the Order Points, which can create big lines during rush hours, at the registers, in the bathrooms, and at the pick up station. To quote Sheetz employee Linda McCoy, “These people who usually hang out around the store not doing anything are fine when its slow, but once lunch rush hits, it becomes harder to wait on people as they hold up the lines.” To combat the numerous customers who fall into this niche, one of Sheetz’s main mission statements is TCF: Total Customer Focus. Employees are required to go out onto the floor and help people find what they need and help them out in any way possible so people can get in and out of the store quickly and happily (Sheetz, 2018). To quote the Sheetz motto itself, “Sheetz is a Mecca for people on the go… our mission at Sheetz is to provide fast, friendly service and quality products in clean and convenient locations” (Sheetz, 2018).

The “Loiterer”

Now one must be thinking: “Isn’t this similar to the last category of dawdlers?” That is correct, however, there is a major difference between “Dawdlers” and “Loiterers” and that is at least the “Dawdlers” end up buying something in the end. From an insider's perspective, there are a special group of people who just come into the store just to sit down and not do anything. Most people who fall into this category are high schoolers who come after school or big games and practices, teenagers on weekends who come with big groups of their friends, and older persons who just sit down at the dining area and watch the news for hours on end like they are living rooms.“Loiterers” are also usually persons who smoke or drink. Sheetz attracts “Loiterers” by having the “lowest priced cigarettes/tobacco allowed by law, and the newly available beer caves” that entice customers to stay in the store even longer (Convenience Store News, 2017). “Customers now have more of an incentive to hang around the store, and they can really interfere with our work, making it make a really long time to get things done,” said McCoy.

Conclusion

Sheetz is an American chain of convenience stores located primarily in the northeastern part of the United States, and owned primarily by the Sheetz family. Sheetz is open for twenty fours per day, all seven days a week- even on holidays like Christmas and Easter. The hours of business has attracted a wide variety of consumers, who fall into a variety of categories. From insider experience, Sheetz is home to a large and diverse customer population that can come classified into three main different categories known as the “Hustler”, the “Dawdler”, and the “Loiterer”. While there is no single right way to approach and deal with such a diverse customer population, knowing the difference between these types of customers can make it easier to handle all types of customer service, no matter if they are pleasant or not.

References

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http://triblive.com/business/headlines/5270418-74/sheetz-stores-convenience

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Retrieved 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19027410