How Convenient Are Convenience Stores?

With the new Union Central Exchange Convenience Store opening up on the second floor of the Student Union, students may be wondering how it measures up to the other local area stores, including the C-Store at the Co-op, Store24 on Route 195 and Sam's (the old DB Mart) on North Eagleville Road.

To find out, The Daily Campus made a rough grocery list of things that students could possibly need and went to each store to see what kind of prices each store was charging for these items and how their hours compare to the others.

The list included: a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, a box of Apple Jacks cereal, 12 oz. of peanut butter, strawberry jam, a loaf of bread, a 12-pack of cans of Diet Coke, a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke, a can of Beefaroni, a packet of ramen noodles, a box of Easy Mac, a 12-ounce can of Red Bull energy drink, a pack of Trojan lubricated condoms, a tube of Colgate toothpaste and a stick of Lady Speed Stick deodorant. The reason for the specificity in brands and sizes is fairness - comparing the half-gallons of milk that Sam's sells to the gallons of milk that the C-Store sells would be unfair and misrepresentative.

For the final tallies on the grocery list, the items that not every store carried were omitted. Sam's and the C-Store did not carry eggs and neither the C-store nor the Union Central Exchange carried boxes of Easy Mac. Though the Union Central Exchange did not carry 12-ounce cans of Red Bull, they did have 16-ounce cans of Full Throttle and Rock Star that were used to calculate the cost of the shopping list there.

After sticking to only the items that all the stores carried and adding up all the pre-tax prices, Store24 turned out to be the cheapest, at $30.09. the Union Central Exchange came in a close second at $30.18 and the C-Store in third at $30.79. Even though it finished in last place, Sam's $33.99 wasn't too far off from the others.

Thankfully, hours are much more easily calculated.

Store24 has the best hours of any convenience store around here - no one can compete with 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They are open the most, with 168 hours per week. In second is the Union Central Exchange, which is open for 127 hours per week. The Union Central Exchange is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. until midnight and until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. On Sundays, the store opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 11 p.m.

Sam's is open 112 hours per week, from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. seven days a week.

The C-Store at the Co-op is open 110.5 hours a week, from 7:30 a.m. until midnight Monday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. until midnight on weekends.

But these hour and price rankings aren't everything. Each store has different things going for it, some of which can't be boiled down to a dollar figure or number.

C-Store employee Francisco Bravo, 18, of Storrs, said that the people coming to convenience stores are thinking more about location than about price in their decision.

"[A convenience store] isn't as cheap as Wal-Mart, but that's a half hour away," he said.

Anthony Santella, a 6th-semester political science major and employee of the C-Store said the C-Store was a popular option because of its location and because of its payment methods.

"It's right in the area for students and they can use Husky Bucks, which is something that other convenience stores haven't been able to offer until now," Santella said. The Union Central Exchange also accepts Husky Bucks.

But the C-Store has something going for it that no other store has: the Co-Op rebate.

Money spent at the C-Store is a part of the Co-Op's rebate program.

Santella acknowledged a challenge facing places like the C-Store and the Union Central Exchange that doesn't face convenience stores located off-campus: cigarette sales.

"You can't buy cigarettes here, so students go to places like Sam's and Store24 to get their cigarettes and a snack," he said.

Store24 manager Mary Crump said that her store has a larger selection and wider variety of products, especially cleaning supplies, than many of the local convenience stores.

But students don't necessarily choose convenience stores for their variety - or for the "great customer service" that Crump said her store has.

Tom Butcher, a 2nd-semester accounting major who was interviewed while walking the aisles at Store24, said that he thought students wouldn't want to walk very far in the cold to get items.

But Butcher, who said he lives in West campus, lives closer to the C-Store and Union Central Exchange than he does to Store24.

And the fact that so many students live very close to the Student Union and use the Student Union daily is something that the Union Central Exchange is banking on, according to store employee Elise Trowel, a 6th-semester pathobiology major.

"You come to the Student Union, grab food, then come right up here," she said.

Contact Aly Shea at

Alison.Shea@UConn.edu.