tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Sheetz
Owner -- Privately held
Primary Operating Region -- Based in Pennsylvania, with stores also in Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina
Number of Locations -- 334 (2007)

I've been debating classifying Sheetz as a burger chain on this website for months.

I've gotten several e-mails asking about Sheetz.  They have their fans, no doubt about it.  But Sheetz isn't a true fast food operation.  It's a convenience store chain with an unusual way of selling quick serve foods.

It was a lunch at Burger King that changed my mind.  I was sitting there eating my Western Whopper, thinking about how it seemed warmed over.  It was good, yet...Then I thought, "This is more warmed over than that burger I had at Sheetz".  

The name comes from the family who started it.  Bob Sheetz acquired Sheetz Dairy Store in Altoona, PA from his parents in 1952, working from his experience in the family store but looking forward with a model more like a 7-Eleven.  Expansion was aimed at rural areas in the gas/convenience format.  His brother Stephen took the reigns in 1984 and expanded into other franchise concepts, which were later discontinued.  Bob's son Stanton became CEO in 1995.  

Traditional convenience stores have been selling limited hot and microwavable-on-site foods for years. Nachos and hot dogs are a staple of the convenience store trade. Burritos and other easily microwavable foods can be nuked on site.  Some chains have expanded offerings to include pre-cooked egg rolls, taquitos...whatever is easy to heat on a hot dog roller.

Sheetz takes that a step further.

At Sheetz, the convenience foods are sold through their "MTO" (Made To Order) process. You go to a computer station (there's typically a minimum of four in any store, sometimes there's some at the gas pumps, and even more rarely you might find a drive-thru), use the touch-screen order system, order your food, and custom top it with the available toppings and condiments. You can get burgers, fries, hot dogs, nachos, subs, deli sandwiches, wraps, salads, even sides like mac and cheese or cole slaw. The "S" at the end of any word is replaced with a "Z", so "Burgers" are "Burgerz", "Subs" are "Subz" and "Fries" are…well, "Fryz", actually. Which does look better than "Friez", I suppose. You can play with the touch screen on the Sheetz website if you go to the Nutrition Info page. The interface used is exactly the same as the in-store unit, sans prices.  Just don't expect the food to pop out of your CD drive.  You lead a sad, sad life.  You know that, don't you?

Sheetz offers an extensive list of toppings for your sandwich. Burgers can be topped with several sauces including mayo, ketchup, two kinds of mustard, buffalo sauce, barbecue sauce, or ranch. Toppings include the usual pickles, lettuce, onion and tomato…plus two kinds of peppers, black olives, jalapenos, cole slaw, and six different cheeses. Certain items up the charge on your finished product…you get what you pay for.

Other sandwiches offer other toppings. Bacon and chili are offered on some items. It's a mystery why neither are listed as an available topping for the burgers, It's not like the stuff isn't already there. You can make a chili dog, add chili to nachos, or even to the mac and cheese. But you can't get chili Fryz.

Anyway, you use the touch screen, review your order, and place it. A receipt is kicked out. Take it to the store cashier and pay. Then wait for your food.

The first time I went, I ordered nachos, a roast beef pretzel melt, garlic fryz (which doesn't appear in the nutrition info interface), and nachos with cheese, onion, sour cream, and olives. 

The first thing I noticed while waiting for my food was that I heard no frying. And I ordered Fryz. What's up with that?

I figured out the answer on a later trip to a different store, where I could actually see the "kitchen". Sheetz's foods are apparently pre-cooked. The burger patties, the Fryz, everything. The stores just puts the patties or whatever into a bin that looks something like the McDonald's "Made for You" cooking system, then reheats in a microwave or toaster, depending on the item. This setup apparently makes the food fall under a technicality where it legally counts as grocery items, and in states that don't charge sales tax on groceries, Sheetz doesn't have to charge sales tax on it.  I was never charged tax on my Sheetz meals in Ohio.

Basically, Sheetz is selling convenience food that they prepare for you.

This works surprisingly well for the burgers. At any other convenience store, you're at best microwaving a plastic wrapped pre-made burger with NO toppings.  But the Sheetz product is custom-topped for you, and you can put lots of stuff on it you wouldn't normally find available at ANY fast food restaurant.  The one problem with the end product is that the beef doesn't exactly have that hot juicy taste you would have gotten at a place that cooks to order.  

In another shocking twist, I found the Fryz to be awesome.  Specifically, I had "Garlic Fryz", and they actually tasted fried, even though I know they weren't.

The rest of the stuff I've tried has been mediocre at best. Nachos taste like convenience store nachos. It would help if they warmed the chips, but they don't. They're cold cheap store chips. I didn't like the roast beef pretzel melt at all. The chili dog wasn't hot enough (and wasn't very good to begin with).  I think everything is pricey for what you get.  Another significant difference between Sheetz and regular fast food restaurants...Neither of the locations I've been to had indoor seating.  There's apparently a new prototype in the works that does.  One of the locations I visited had patio seating. 

Sheetz is expanding on their profitable food concept by adding coffee shops in-store.  "Sheetz Bros Coffee" has a full line of coffee drinks and is designed to compete with Dunkin' Donuts and Tim Horton's.

It's certainly an improvement over the pre-wrapped sandwiches and burgers at the usual convenience stores. And the interactive order screens are fun.  Sheetz takes one-stop convenience to a whole new level.

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