• Convenience stores are eagerly romancing upscale customers.

• Great coffee, brick-oven pizza and gelato can pull them in daily.

• Famima!!, the hottest concept in sight, is newly opened in L.A.

• Cookbooks trace Latino food's advance into the mainstream.

From Art Siemering's vantage point at Noble World Communications - News that convenience stores are moving upscale to target more affluent people has been showing up in the media once again. And this time there may be more substance than wishful thinking behind it.

As a widely published Associated Press story put it: Until recently, the industry has focused on one type of customer, what National Association of Convenience Stores spokesman Jeff Lenard calls the "Bubba" a blue-collar man who smokes.

Reaching beyond Bubba has meant a new generation of convenience stores - bigger, brighter and more upscale than their predecessors - that compete less with service stations and more with grocers and restaurants.

The change comes at a crucial time for the nation's 138,000 convenience stores, most of which historically have relied on gasoline and cigarettes for more than three-quarters of their sales, the AP story posits. At the same time, as profits on those products are shrinking, the $395 billion industry is facing tough new competition from grocers that are adding fuel pumps and drug stores that offer more food than pharmaceuticals.

According to Lenard, "Bubba" is being replaced by the grab-and-go affluent people who spend considerable time in their vehicles and demand portable meals, but want more than Slurpees and shrink-wrapped sandwiches.

The economics of this transformation seem to make sense. While a good price on fuel can attract customers once or twice a week, great coffee, brick-oven pizza or gelato can pull them in daily.

"Most retailers will tell you they can make more money on a 12-ounce cup of coffee than a 12-gallon fillup," Lenard told the Associated Press.

Here is a rundown on a number of c-store chains with plans in place to capitalize on this opportunity:

• The Exxon Mobil Corporation has spent $10 million developing a proprietary line of gourmet coffee called Bengal Traders at its 659 On The Run convenience stores. Since many customers are more loyal to good coffee than gasoline brands, that's money well spent, according to Russ Ritenour, the company's hot beverages manager. Exxon Mobil has even added a new position "brewmaster" at its stores.

• A Virginia convenience chain called Markets of Tiger Fuel offers fresh seafood, a fancy deli and professional chefs at its stores. "We're trying to make them destinations rather than convenience stops," says marketing director Stuart Lowry. "If you choose to just get in and get gas you can," he assures, "but if you want to sit down and have a gourmet meal, you can do that too."

• Sheetz, Inc., an Altoona, Pa., company with hundreds of convenience stores throughout the mid-Atlantic states, recently opened two 10,000-square-foot shops that offer dining rooms, espresso bars and salads and pizzas made-to-order. Sheetz Convenience Markets offer perfect proof of the way the c-store market is changing. In 1994, 22% of their income was derived from gas, with 38% from groceries and 40% from food-and-beverage. In 2004, the income percentages have shifted to 18% from gas, 24% from groceries and 58% from food-and-beverage.

• The 7-Eleven chain has had a team of chefs developing healthy sandwich wraps and other fresh foods for 5,000 of its North American shops. It recently introduced Big Eats Wrap sandwiches with exclusive packages that fit into car cupholders. The wraps come in a cellophane bag that sits inside a cardboard shell that holds the sandwich in an upright position. Varieties include Turkey, Chicken Breast and Capicolla Ham Club.

• Bill Knight definitely upped the ante when he opened his 12,500-square-foot flagship NexStore Marketplace in Boca Raton, Fla. Nearly two-thirds of the space is kitchen. Outside there are nearly 300 parking spaces. Knight employs 41 chefs who prepare 120 different baked items, 12 soups, 16 varieties of sushi and more than 150 different deli items. There's also a meat-carving station. Gas is sold from 20 pumps.

Forefront: Convenience Reconceived

Despite all the above innovations, I think I can confidently say that the most striking new convenience concept in America is Famima!!, an idea so hot that it made the just-off-the-press September issue of WIRED magazine. Here is reporter Suzanne Wu's description.

"Hipsters who wouldn't be caught dead loitering at 7-Eleven may find nirvana hanging out at Famima!!. The Tokyo-based minimart chain, which recently added its first U.S. store in West Hollywood, is a one-stop shop for busy urbanites. Here, Slurpees, Slim Jims and lottery tickets are replaced by lattes, prepackaged paninis and video game rentals. And anything that's not on the shelves can be had online through one of the onsite Internet kiosks. Famima!!, which plans to open 30 more stores stateside in 2006, is the perfect place for well-heeled slackers and wannabe otaku to drop a dime."

And here is the ambitious agenda the store sets for itself, as quoted from a press release found on its Web site, www.famima-usa.com.

Famima!! encompasses all that is essential for the 21st century lifestyle - a neighborhood deli, a quick-service restaurant, a premium grocer, a drug store, a banker, a personal business services and stationery store, a local newsstand and Internet provider, and a morning coffee and snack shop. (Whew!)

With a full range of attractive products, Famima!! Appeals to a diverse clientele and is quick to recognize consumer trends. Utilizing a state-of-the-art merchandise management system, consumers can always depend on Famima!! To be well stocked with their favorite items.

According to the Web site, Famima!! expansion plans are more ambitious than indicated in the WIRED story:

With the West Hollywood store as its pilot project, a strategic rollout of hundreds of specialty stores using the Famima!! name and franchise systems is planned over the next three years. In 2005, three new stores will be added, and 30 more stores will come in 2006. The company expects to have 250 stores by 2009.

If I were a current competitor in the c-store category, I'd be studying the Famima!! Web site (www.famima-usa.com once again) very carefully, and I might even book an early flight to L.A. to see things for myself. The address is 8525 Santa Monica Blvd. near the Ramada Plaza hotel, and the place is open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., 7 days a week.

If you need any further prompting, catch this pitch from a full-page ad in the August issue of Los Angeles magazine:

"Easy is good. Easy with all the amenities is rare. At Famima!!, every day becomes a better, richer experience. Simplicity in design, superior products and personalized customer care is what life should be all about."

That doesn't sound much like any other c-store I know!

Forefront: Some Hot Summer Reading!

One of the most captivating trends I see in cookbooks today is how they are documenting the relentless advance of Latino food into the American mainstream.

Although there are plenty of Southwest cookbooks surveying the work of frou-frou celebrity chefs¾whose recipes seem intended more to build admiration than to be duplicated at home - I like books with somewhat smaller ambitions.

Some of the ones I admire most right now are slicing and dicing Southwestern cookery into subcategories such as "slow" and "light" cooking.

I see these efforts as a sure sign that Latino food is really beginning to feel at home in the United States. Here are three examples - all of which are from Northland Publishing in Flagstaff, Ariz., a company that's emerging as a major player in this market.

• Don't let the title, Southwest Slow Cooking (Northland, $16.95), mislead you. This book's subject does not relate to the Slow Food movement, but to the fact that the kitchen appliances known as "slow cookers" are back, and in fact more popular than ever. Authors Tammy Biber and Theresa Howell have produced a gem of a cookbook that pairs classic Hispanic recipes with this simple, nearly foolproof cooking method. Included here are recipes for Tortilla Soup, Chile Verde, Turkey Mole, Tequila Chicken, Pork Chops with Lentils, Pineapple and Mango Salsa and many more. The authors have even discovered a way to make machaca (a classic Mexican dish of dried, shredded beef) in the slow cooker. I am duly impressed.

• In Southwest Lite (Northland, $16.95), writer Bob Wiseman introduces more than 100 recipes "that will help you eat healthier without losing an ounce of flavor that you expect from Southwest cooking." It's a claim that's easier to make than prove, perhaps, but as you get into the book, you'll begin to see that Wiseman is really on a mission. Some of his most enticing recipes include Paco's Shrimp and Creamy Mango Dip, Ham and a Pair of Beans Stew, Gazpacho Grande, Sunday Brunch Potato Salad and Grilled Chipotle Honey Mustard T-bone Steaks. From dishes like these, one hardly gets the impression that healthy eating Southwest style involves much sacrifice. Wiseman is a longtime resident of Las Vegas and a lifetime member of the International Chili Society.

• For my money, Jane Butel still reigns as the queen of Southwest cooking, and it's a pleasure to see a revised and updated edition of her 1987 volume, Hotter Than Hell - Hot & Spicy Dishes from Around the World (Northland, $16.95). Butel, a native of New Mexico, is widely credited as the first person to write about (starting in 1961) the cooking style that evolved in the southwestern border area between the United States and Mexico. And this book handily demonstrates her mastery of this food, as expressed in recipes with saucy titles such as Kentucky's Best Bourbon-Glazed Thighs and Bitchy Beef Bourguignonne. She also puts her own stamp on dishes ranging from Hot Spinach Salad with Smoked Salmon to Chile-Crusted Chorizo Quiche - in other words, most of these are not recipes you are likely to see on a typical Mexican restaurant menu. As someone who (full disclosure here) has known Jane for many years, it's a pleasure to see her soldier on as a Southwestern-cooking icon. For more information on the Jane Butel Cooking School, which is based in Albuquerque, call 800-472-8229 or visit her Web site, www.janebutel.com.