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The "Big Dawg" in Town
 By Linda Lisanti
If you want to get Chris "Big Dawg" Carter fired up, just ask him how many stores he has.
"Whenever a salesman asks me that question, it really punches my buttons," said the former Frito-Lay salesperson now turned single-store convenience owner. "I always say, 'If you have one good one, you don't need any more.'"
Carter, owner of Shout & Sack, an independent convenience store in Vinita, Okla., knows what it takes to have "one good one." He and his wife, Jody, opened the business in July 1978, and have since turned the store into the community hub, attracting roughly 3,000 customers a day in this farming town of 6,400.
When the couple first built the store, it measured 2,000 square feet. Today, the building spans nearly 12,000 square feet -- the result of numerous add-ons and remodels aimed at continuously growing customer counts and better meeting shoppers' needs.
What makes so many people flock to the Shout & Sack c-store?
Above all else, cleanliness, Carter said. Since the very first day, this former U.S. Navy serviceman has made having a clean store his top priority. At various times in the day, he will shout out "20-20" -- an old military term -- and the employees know to stop whatever they're doing and check the bathrooms, clean the counters and run the mop.
"You can have an old store, but if you keep it clean, it never looks old," he said. "Several times a day, people will comment that this is the cleanest store they've ever been in, and that makes us proud. The health department loves to come and inspect here."
The spotlessness of the store also plays a key role in the second reason Carter said customers choose Shout & Sack over the competition -- its prepared foods offering. The store doesn't sell any prepackaged foodservice -- everything is made fresh on site.
"The kitchen is where we've had to keep growing and growing," he noted. "The food business can keep you going at all times. Without it, we couldn’t have survived."
Carter started off in the early '80s making chicken salad and other cold sandwiches, and then moved up to a broaster chicken program. The current Big Dawg Smokin' -- a play off his nickname and the bulldogs he was raising at the time -- was created after a friend suggested he offer barbecue, something no other operator in the area was doing.
Now the c-store has two ovens and three broasters cooking up a menu of more than 40 items. Shout & Sack smokes meat every day, and bakes its own bread. In addition to barbecue ribs, brisket and chicken strips, there's an extensive menu of other hot foods,
including chicken and noodles, chili, and ham and beans. Daily hot food specials run Oct. 1 to April 1. During the warmer weather, the store pushes its salads and wraps.
Customers can get fresh food every day beginning at 4 a.m. While Shout & Sack does a strong foodservice business across all dayparts, Carter said the lunch business is "huge." The store serves an average of 250 lunches per day, and that number doubles every Friday, when the retailer does its highly anticipated "Fish Fridays."
From 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every Friday, the store fries up catfish with Carter's own special breading. The fish is only available on this day.
"You do things once a week in a small town," he explained. "I go through 160 to 250 pounds of fish on the average Friday. People line up for it…The key to food is doing it big and keeping it fresh."
This strategy not only applies inside the store, but to Shout & Sack's extremely successful catering business as well. Carter said he caters 360 days out of the year for clients ranging from class reunions to pharmaceutical companies.
"So many single stores think it can’t be done when it comes to catering, but we're proof that it can," he said, noting catering accounts for 20 percent of Shout & Sack's total business, while in-store food sales accounts for another 40 percent.
Big Dawg Smokin' has traveled as far as Washington, D.C., to cater events for congressmen, putting the small-town single store on the national stage.
BIG BRANDING
Given its level of sophistication, Shout & Sack often gets mistaken for a chain, and the Carters don't mind a bit.
"It makes my wife and I proud when someone asks if we are a chain," he said. "People think we're a chain because it all looks right."
The independent operators certainly approach branding like a larger retailer. Shout & Sack has its own brand of fuel, "Get It! Gas." The single-store retailer made the switch from ConocoPhillips a little over a year ago, when the price of fuel skyrocketed.
But unlike some other single stores that just take down the logos when they go unbranded, the Carters had new canopy signs made from the same company ConocoPhillips used.
Although they were worried the store would lose motor fuel volume after being branded for 28 years, Carter said their gallons never decreased, and now they're making better margins.
To promote the Shout & Sack name, Carter hosts a radio show once a week on a local station. The retailer is also well known for its custom-branded merchandise, particularly its T-shirts and sweatshirts. The store's motto is "Get It!" and its first ever T-shirt featured a chicken skateboarding with the logo "Get It! at Shout & Sack."
Sixty-two other unique designs have followed that first shirt. The latest was themed summer fun, and had the chicken and Big Dawg bulldog riding in a speedboat. Much of the artwork is done by local artist Mike Staubus, who also designs Eskimo Joe's shirts.
The T-shirts retail for around $12.99, while hooded sweatshirts sell for $24.99. Carter usually orders 500 to 600 of each design, and always sells out. He said they have customers who have purchased every new design for the last 20 years.
For every customer who has a baby, the couple gives the child his or her first Big Dawg shirt, and they send a T-shirt or sweatshirt to all local servicemen and women when they are serving overseas. Shout & Sack also hands out thousands of "Get It!" bumper stickers each year. The convenience store's branded merchandise can be found all over the world.
"We don’t make a lot of money off them. It's more of an advertising tool," Carter said of the items, which also include key chains, ice bags, cups, pencils and soon his own bottled barbecue sauce. "Why sell someone else's stuff when you can do it yourself?"
BIG GIVING
While its cleanliness, quality food and creative branding have all helped make Shout & Sack "one good one," Carter said it's the good deeds he, his family and employees do for the community that make his job as a single-store owner most rewarding.
The community involvement starts by being a presence at the store. At one time Carter had two locations, but he closed the second one after four years to be more hands-on. Shout & Sack has always been a family operation, with both Carter and his wife working full-time, and their three children pitching in at various times.
"I like to see my customers when they're going to work and then when they stop back in on their way home," he said. "And when I get a new customer, I introduce myself and my wife. When you do those small things, the loyalty will come to you."
Another way Shout & Sack shows its community spirit is through its "Wall of Fame," which runs along the back of the store and showcases community members who achieve academic and athletic greatness. The wall also serves as a tribute every year to the graduating seniors at the local high school by featuring their photos and bios.
Beyond the walls of the store, the Carters provide support to a number of community organizations, especially schools, churches and veterans' causes. The couple gives thousands of dollars in scholarships each year; provides food and fuel for activities; hosts an annual back-to-school appreciation party for Vinita School District employees; and helps cover the costs for graduating seniors who cannot afford caps, gowns and announcements.
In recognition of their many years of generosity, the Carters were inducted into the Vinita Area Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame.
Perhaps, the most telling sign of the Carters' community service is the fact that when their daughter got married this summer, long-time Shout & Sack customers were among the 1,500 guests the pair hosted at the wedding reception held at their home.
Carter said it's the sum of all this that contributes to the store's continued success.
"Can I put a dollar amount on it? No. But I can put a face amount on it, because I see people travel to come here instead of going somewhere closer by," he said.
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Copyright 2006 Convenience Store News
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 | Dynamic Design
October 01, 2009
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Without the pressure to represent a chain or franchise brand, single-store operators have the opportunity to create unique and innovative store designs. |
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