Whether you are building a fast food restaurant using an existing corporate plan or template, or are creating an independent restaurant from scratch, you will require the services of a professional design consultant.

A design consultant will be able to customize your design plans to your exact needs and ensure it conforms to the local codes and regulations.

Topics: Design, C-Store and Quick-Service, Commercial and Retail

So, you’re looking for the perfect location for your hot new fast food restaurant. There are a lot of great commercial realtors out there.

The good ones can provide you with invaluable advice on choosing a location with high traffic flow –maybe a corner lot with access to passing traffic on two main streets. They can likely recommend a vibrant neighbourhood that matches your customer demographic. They may be able to help you weigh the pros and cons of leasing versus financing, and hopefully, they are master negotiators who can help you get an incredible price. However, a realtor’s expertise only goes so far.

Topics: Design, C-Store and Quick-Service, Commercial and Retail

Image: Philip Bird LRPS CPAGB / Shutterstock.com

A 2014 report on Canadian Quick Service Restaurants revealed that 75% of Quick service Restaurants (QSR) offered drive-thru service.* Seventy-five percent! If you’ll pardon the pun, it’s all driven by the needs of a society that is constantly on the go— rushing to work, children’s soccer practices and birthday parties, or to family and social gatherings.

As a result, the ability to offer convenient drive-thru service is becoming a make-or-break proposition for QSRs. Which is why it’s crucial that the restaurant site is professionally designed by a firm with expertise and experience in this area.

You may also want to check out our previous blog post on Layout Planning Matters: 4 Key Design Practices for Quick Serve Restaurants.

Topics: C-Store and Quick-Service

When a customer enters your restaurant or tries to navigate your parking lot, they generally don’t pay much attention to whether the layout is well thought out. But if it is poorly planned, they will notice in a hurry. That is because awkward, inconvenient, and unsafe restaurant design adversely affects your ability to offer great service, and dissatisfied customers can be quick to take their business somewhere else.

Topics: C-Store and Quick-Service

In a recent post, Beyond the Microwave: Hot Food Options for Your C-Store, we gave you a taste of some options for providing hot food offerings in your C-Store. This week, we’d like to address equipment and design requirements around food safety.

Topics: Current Trends, Innovation, C-Store and Quick-Service, Gas and Petroleum Stations, Commercial and Retail

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Running out of gas in a car is embarrassing. Running out of fuel at a gas station and turning away customers is unforgiveable. Fortunately, your fuel management system is there to keep you on top of your current inventory levels… and much more.

Topics: Gas and Petroleum Stations

Six options for improving your food offering.

Look around and it’s clear to see. Appetites have evolved! Expectations have changed. As a result, new equipment options and food trends are displacing the once mighty microwave in C-stores.

CTM asked our independent C-store Consultant, Mark Walsh, about different equipment options available to help you take your food offering to the next level.

Topics: Current Trends, C-Store and Quick-Service, Commercial and Retail

Why it makes sense to plan for a Remotely Monitored Retail Site at the time of your build.

Recently, CTM has worked on several design projects involving Unattended Self Service Outlets (also known as Remotely Monitored Retail Sites).

It is a relatively new business model that allows an owner to run a gas bar without the need for onsite staff. Currently, Alberta and Ontario are the only provinces to permit these types of operations.

Topics: Current Trends, Gas and Petroleum Stations, Car Wash

In our last blog post, independent C-Store consultant Mark Walsh helped us shed some light on the Pros and Cons of adding a hot food program to your service offering. 

As part of that conversation, he suggested the next key question an owner must ask after deciding to proceed with a hot food offering is whether or not is should be a branded (national franchise) or non-branded product.

Topics: Current Trends, C-Store and Quick-Service, Commercial and Retail

It's a question many C-Store owners struggle with: "Should I have a hot food offering? And if I do, should I choose a branded or non-branded product?" 

To help shed light on the key points you need to consider, we solicited the insights of an independent consultant and C-Store specialist, Mark Walsh. Mark addresses both questions in this two-part interview.

Topics: Current Trends, C-Store and Quick-Service, Commercial and Retail