Do you shop at your local corner store? Jennifer Freese didn’t stop by her neighborhood shop much except for emergencies. “I lived across the street from the store for 22 years but only shopped there when I really needed something quick,” she said of the store in Berkeley, California. “I used to ask the owner about selling more stuff beyond beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets, but he didn’t want to change.”
Freese figured the store, owned by the same family since 1970, would continue as usual into the future as well. “I would joke with the owner that I’d buy the store when he was ready to retire, since I had all these ideas about how to make it more relevant for people like me,” she said. Then one day, he knocked on her door and said he was ready to get out of the business.
Faced with putting her money where her mouth was, she took the plunge along with some friends who joined her as silent partners. In 2015, she reopened the store as Franklin Bros. Market.
Out With the Old
After purchasing the store, Freese rolled up her sleeves and got to work. “We ended up buying the entire building, which had a lot of deferred maintenance to attend to beyond a deep clean and general sprucing up,” she said. All the windows had been boarded up with plywood for years and needed repairing or replacing, for example.
She revamped the 900-square-foot interior into a full-service market with snacks, drinks, regular grocery items, organic produce and a prepared food section with homemade sandwiches, soups and salads. “We wanted to make a store with something for everyone in the neighborhood, which is very diverse with low-income apartment buildings next to million-dollar homes,” she said.
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Ideas 2 Go showcases how retailers today are operating the convenience store of tomorrow. To see videos of the c-stores we profiled in 2019 and earlier, go to www.convenience.org/ideas2go.
With the store a block from a commercial office zone, Freese added options for takeout lunches and dinners. With an elementary school also a block away, she upgraded the coffee service for the parents and stocked ice cream for the kids.
During the pandemic, Franklin Bros. Market added a walk-up window, which opens around noon on weekdays for customers to place small orders like hot soup, sandwiches and salads. The tiny store stocks fresh foods, bread and organic produce.
In her opinion, the best improvement was bringing in more fresh food options. “Our fresh foods are probably a lot better than what you would expect from a typical convenience store. All our produce is organic, and all of our bread comes from a local bakery each morning,” she said. Local vendors provide fresh chicken and ground beef.
Pandemic Pivot
The coronavirus pandemic altered the way Franklin Bros. Market did business. Once the lockdown went into effect, Freese expanded the business with an online store with curbside pickup. “Before COVID-19, we sold a lot of snacks, drinks and lunches, but now most of our online business is from people reluctant to do in-person shopping at a big supermarket,” Freese said. The store’s produce sales have tripled, while chip sales have plummeted to a quarter of previous sales.
Franklin Bros. Market offered delivery for high-risk customers at the beginning of the shelter-in-place orders. However, after a couple of months, it stopped this service for new customers because of staffing limitations. Franklin Bros. Market continues with its online-only shopping model and recently added a walk-up window option, which is open weekdays around lunch time.
“We can’t have customers inside our small store because of the impossibility to socially distance,” Freese said. “The window is open for small orders, like lunch pickups. We also recently resumed making hot soup and sandwiches for lunch, so those orders can be picked up at the walk-up window. Most of our business is still larger grocery online orders with curbside pickup.”
Through it all, Freese has continued to make customers feel at home. “Our business has grown by word of mouth more than marketing,” she said. “We’re a neighborhood store, not a destination location, and we operate for the people in the area.”
Her greatest desire is for customers to know that Franklin Bros. Market is part of their neighborhood—and their everyday lives. “Back when we were open to customers inside, people would drop by in the mornings for coffee and pastries wearing their pajamas and slippers,” Freese said. “I took it as a huge compliment because it said to me they felt like this place was an extension of their own home.”
Bright Ideas
Jennifer Freese, owner of Franklin Bros. Market, pivoted to add online ordering and curbside pickup for customers during the pandemic. “When a customer places an order through our website, our staff starts filling the order right away,” she said. “We email the customer as soon as their order is ready to pick up and hold it for them until they arrive.”
Upon arrival, customers alert the store, and staff puts their groceries in the “order pickup” cart at the entrance. “Some customers request we place the order in the trunk of their car, and we’re happy to do that as well,” she said.
Many regular customers now order online and walk to pick up the order. “These are people who live in the neighborhood, many of whom now work from home,” she said. Franklin Bros. Market did lose its office worker customer base, since those buildings have been closed. “However, we’ve also gained new customers who live outside of the neighborhood but who prefer the safety of our no-contact curbside pickup over in-person supermarket shopping,” she said.