Rontec is giving a masterclass on how to embrace a local opportunity with a temporary but extensive revamp of one of its stores for this weekend’s Reading Festival.
The Top 50 Indie’s Richfield Avenue BP forecourt in the Berkshire town is on the same road and minutes away from the venue for the three-day event, which attracts over 90,000 music fans. This year’s headliners include Lana Del Rey, former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, and Catfish and the Bottlemen.
For a few days, the Shop’n Drive store is unrecognisable from its usual format, with displays of soft drinks, alcohol, and snacks dominating. In addition, there are the festival-goers’ favourites of dry shampoo, condoms, wet wipes, paracetamol and ibufrofen, Orange County CBD Gummies, plastic cups, hand sanitiser, water pistols, and sunglasses.
Standalone towers of Thatcher’s Cloudy, Budweiser, Strongbow, Stella Artois and Foster’s, and floor stacks of Volvic water and Yazoo dairy drinks, funnel customers to the cashdesk, to help ensure an orderly queueing system.
Rontec declines to give details of its plans, but in previous years it has employed security staff on the door at the 24-hour location, and hired extra chiller, till, oven, and hot food cabinet capacity to cover increased demand.
When we visited the shop on August 20, three days before the start of the festival, staff were putting the finishing touches to the displays, and it appeared that an extra chiller and hot food cabinet was being introduced for this year too.
The shop was brimming with snacks – both ambient and chilled – with a very limited frozen and everyday chilled essentials range. Interestingly a car care section was still in place, but there was limited everyday groceries, ready-meals, and frozen items.
Two of the alcohol chillers had been devoted to ready-to-drink (RTD) spirits cans including Gordon’s Gin & Tonic, AU Vodka Black Grape, and Jack Daniel’s and Coca-Cola. Multi-packs of Dark Fruit Strongbow Cider, BrewDog Punk IPA, and Thatcher’s Haze were in another large chiller.
Sandwiches, wraps, iced coffees, and chilled snacks such as Dairylea Dunkers and Ginsters, Gazebo Vegetable Samosas were well stocked, and in another chiller there was a large selection of energy drinks including Rockstar, Red Bull, Monster, Juiced Monster, and Lucozade Alert.
In addition, there were shelves of sharing bottles of soft drinks such as Fanta, Lucozade and Pepsi, and lines of savoury bagged crisps and nuts, as well as floor stacks of Pringles.
A small toiletry section was in the centre of the shop, and included all the basics such as plasters, tampons and sanitary towels, Enliven dry shampoo, Listerine mouthwash, as well as nine-volt, AAA and C sized Duracell betteries.
And near the cashdesk there was a medication display for ailments from cold and flu to indigestion, as well as Pro Plus, and packs of Durex. And for those seeking home comforts there was a section of essentials such as wet wipes, black sacks, household paper, toilet paper, plastic cups, and hanging bags of plant-based Candy Kittens sweets.
Rontec will once again be hoping its outlet becomes an essential pitstop for those travelling to the event this year.
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