NexStore MarketPlace, a convenience store/bakery/gas station/gourmet food market in Boca Raton, Fla., is showing brisk business after being open for only a few months. The new concept, which opened in December, features an in-store bakery that produces a full line of products.
NexStore food sales reach $30,000 on some days with sales per customer averaging about $13. Its parking space, built to accommodate more than 100 cars, is so jammed that the company has purchased an adjacent lot to double parking.
The 25,000-sq.-ft. facility features ten food departments, including a bake shop, café, Grab & Go, sandwiches, sushi, salads, deli, grill, Chef’s Showcase and specialty items. The market employs more than 40 "first-class" chefs, artisan bakers and skilled butchers on site.
"We took a giant leap with this store and made fuel secondary–we made the market the true destination," said Bill Knight, principal developer of Knight Development Group. "We’ve watched the Dean & Deluca’s and the eatZi’s of the world, and this concept is probably more like eatZi’s than anything else I’ve seen. We offer 350 different full meal solutions. People find things to eat here–healthier foods, great low-carb meals, sugar-free foods-that they won’t see in other places."
All food, including baked products, is prepared in house. Cakes, produced from scratch, are sold as single pieces and full sheet or 7-in. cakes. The bakery also offers tarts, bundt cakes, pies, coffeecakes and croissants. Its international dessert assortment includes Mexican wedding cookies, English trifles, Italian cream cakes, lemon white chocolate operas and German tortes.