When it comes to food, our goal was to give people an option away from the major chains.

Two things people are shocked to find in our store are fresh meat and seafood. These product lines sell really well, as do our selection of quality ready meals. Here is how we manage to differentiate from the rest.

Fresh meat

We source fresh meat from a local butcher weekly and ensure that there is always a fresh meat option in the refrigerator. As the use-by date nears, we freeze any unsold stock so people can still purchase it for a further 9 months.

Our fresh meats include:

• Lamb chops
• Pork chops
• Steaks
• Joints
• Chicken breasts
• Whole chickens
• Minced beef

We also take special orders and deliver within 24 hours. All in all, we are offering a service the supermarkets cannot compete with.

Seafood

Our seafood is all frozen so has a 9 month shelf life, which gives us the luxury of being able to stock a good selection including:

• Tiger shrimp & prawns
• Barramundi
• Tuna steaks
• Swordfish steaks
• Smoked salmon

Ready meals

Supply of frozen ready meals may not be for everyone, but in today’s fast paced world, there is an increasing demand for quality prepared meals. We started with one freezer dedicated to ready meals and this has now grown to three.

Evidence enough in my opinion of the acceptance of this form of eating.

The trick with ready meals is quality. Source a supplier that provides a diverse range of meals that are of the highest quality. I am afraid the mass produced name brand meals will not cut it.

Quality ready meals are expensive but good and it proves that when it comes to food, people are prepared to pay for quality. The popularity of these meals has come as a bit of a surprise to us. Coupled with the additional wine and vegetable sales the meals generate, it is now a focus for our shop.

This post is an extract from the e-book ‘So, you want to run a convenience store?’ by Peter Lamb. It is available for free download here.