With over 1,000 stores across the UK, One Stops have become a neighbourhood necessity in many regions, with the majority of One Stops stores now being located in residential areas, allowing locals to pop in for their essentials with ease.
This is no different for the One Stop store in Rhyl, North Wales, as Nathan Whiteside, store manager of One Stop Kenedy Road, reveals.
“The customers who visit our store are mainly local, and will visit our store knowing that they can fill up their basket with virtually anything that they could find in a supermarket. As a store, it is not only our aim to get customers to arrive to the till with a full basket, but to push sales further with impulse purchases at the till.”
For Nathan however, offering standard impulse items such as individually-wrapped confectionery and canned drinks wasn’t enough – he saw a gap in the market for on-the-move milkshakes in the local area, and began to research his options:
“Once we decided that we wanted to introduce a milkshake concept to our store, we began looking at different options available to the market and came across Shmoo from Aimia Foods. The desktop research that we did on Shmoo was really positive, and encouraged us to see the Shmoo vending concept in action at a trade show. Here, we used a Shmoo vending machine for ourselves, sampled the shakes produced, and were sold!
Once our Shmoo vending concept was installed, we were immediately inundated with sales. We believe the reputation of the brand itself plays a big part in this success. In fact, many of our customers have told us that they have had a Shmoo shake before, but never before in a convenience store which makes us different to competitors. Once word of mouth about the new concept spread, we even saw new customers from outside of the local area visiting just to try a Shmoo shake.
Shmoo vending compatible powders were introduced to the market in August 2022. This range is available in four of Shmoo’s most popular flavours – vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and banana – and each boast a unique, school compliant formula, which in seconds, transforms into a delicious shake when processed through a cold/chilled vending machine.
In order to boost sales further, and get exposure for the new concept in-store, Nathan bolstered social media, and ran lots of specials such as a ‘Pound a cup’ which brought further success:
“When we ran the ‘Pound a cup’ special in the summer holidays, we were selling about 300 cups of Shmoo a day! It was madness! The customers loved it, and we loved it too, as those all-important basket totals were increasing with nearly every customer. Shmoo even outsold Slush which was amazing!
Even when we are not running specials, we still sell more Shmoo shakes than we ever expected! To put this into perspective, we aim to sell 30 cups from our hot beverage machine a day, and our Shmoo sales match, or sometimes surpass this. We could sell between 50 and 200 on a good day!”
For a customer who wants to purchase a Shmoo shake from the One Stop store, Rhyll, the customer simply purchases the cup from the counter, then places the cup in the machine cup holder, presses what flavour they want, and 10 seconds later, the shake is ready for the customer to enjoy.
In the words of Nathan, the machine is also a “doddle” to clean and maintain:
“We open the door and press the flush button three or four times a day which really effectively stops blockages that unfortunately we have experienced with other machines. Once a day, we also clean the machine, giving the mixers a thorough clean and dry before they go back in.”
Nathan concludes: “I would definitely recommend a Shmoo vending concept to other convenience stores – it’s increased our basket spend, it’s brought new people into our store – the kids like it, adults like it, everyone that tries it truly enjoys it!
