Seriously Fresh

Neon Marketplace focuses on high-quality foodservice in New England

By Renée M. Covino

PREMIUM FOOD in a technology-driven atmosphere is the beacon of Neon Marketplace, a new prototype that aims to “dynamically change the perception of convenience stores.”

Based in Providence, R.I., Neon Marketplace takes fresh food — its primary core competency — very seriously, especially the word “fresh.”

“We’re very conscious of the fact that a lot of convenience stores have [touted] a fresh kitchen, fresh food, fresh everything. Some do it well, some don’t. It’s a tough perception to fight for as an industry,” said Peter Rasmussen, director of operations for the budding chain with four locations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

“The word ‘fresh’ is somewhat bastardized in this channel,” added Elise Babey, senior manager of product development at Neon Marketplace. “Our ‘fresh’ vs. someone else’s, there’s a big difference. And I’ve made it my goal to let the food do the talking.”

In fact, Neon Marketplace could be considered a multifaceted quick-service restaurant (QSR), according to Babey, who cited its brick oven pizza program, made-to-order kitchen, sandwich program, hot express breakfast program, and “robust” barista program featuring customized espresso drinks and bean-to-cup coffee.

“We take the concept and model of a quick-service restaurant, but we’re four of them — all-encompassing — under a food and energy marketplace,” she said.

Crafting the Perfect Pizza

The pizza is “front and center” at Neon Marketplace’s two full-concept stores, which opened in December of last year and January of this year, one in Rhode Island and the other in Massachusetts. (There are also two Neon Marketplace Express stores, both in Rhode Island, which launched the brand in 2020 as “acquisition stores,” according to

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Rasmussen, but they don’t offer pizza or the premium café.)

The pizza is such an important part of the Neon Marketplace experience that even after being open for only a short time, tweaks were made to improve it. “We immediately transformed our pizza production,” Rasmussen explained.

The retailer started with fresh pizza dough that employees shaped and pressed and “put the toppings on right in front of you,” Babey noted. “It worked too well; we blew through our volume projections. Basically, the pizza oven wasn’t able to handle all the orders,” she said, pointing out that they were averaging 200 pizzas a day per store.

A few weeks later, the program was redesigned to “not lose the quality, but enable the pizzas to be prepared faster, get into the oven more quickly, and essentially into customers’ hands quickly,” she said. This was achieved by utilizing employees on the third shift to take the pizza dough and par-bake the shells ahead of time.

“We’re still doing everything by hand, in-house,” she told Convenience Store News. “It would have been easier to go to a pizza dough manufacturer and buy them par-baked, but we’re all about serving the customer the highest quality we can and giving them the pizza they deserve.”

Neon Marketplace also streamlined its fresh pizza-making process by doing away with a ladle to spread the sauce. Now, a squeeze bottle is used, which Babey said is much quicker and more consistent. The way toppings are calculated has also changed.

“We have them calculate the portions in ounces now, so they can scoop it on in a quicker way,” she stated, noting employees no longer have to count out toppings, such as 35 pepperonis to top a large pie, its most popular pizza. “We’re learning things like this every day. The end product is the same high quality, but the customer is getting a better experience because they’re getting the food faster.”

A Quality Mantra

Neon Marketplace can’t “harp enough on quality, quality, quality,” according to Babey. “We put it at the top of everything,” she said, along with taste. To emphasize this point, she discussed the differences between Neon Marketplace’s English muffin breakfast sandwich vs. other c-stores. “We source the highest-quality bacon, and our English muffins are baked fresh daily through a partnership with a local bakery distributor. We cook the English muffin and the egg protein separately; we don’t pop it into a TurboChef. Then, we assemble it. All that just for a little English muffin sandwich,” she said.

From fresh pizza dough to homemade sauce, Neon Marketplace focuses on delivering the highest quality with its brick oven pizza program.

“Neon Marketplace is a beacon propelling toward the future. It’s about being a trendsetter and ahead of the curve; a modern convenience company.”

— Elise Babey, Neon Marketplace

A Luminary in the Making

Neon Marketplace doesn’t actually feature its name in neon lights, but it does put a spotlight on “ahead-of-the-curve” trendsetting attributes, such as:

• Brick oven pizza • Premium café serving up customized beverages • Fresh bakery • Drive-thru • Outdoor heated seating • Delivery via Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub • Tesla Superchargers • Bitcoin ATMs • Self-checkout (by summer 2022)

This hands-on approach is carried throughout the retailer’s foodservice program. “We don’t buy pizza sauce by the can, we make it proprietary in-house,” she noted.

Additionally, the Neon Marketplace café program is “a force to be reckoned with,” Babey added, pointing to the chain’s use of the highestquality beans and roast strengths that are based on the demographics of the New England area. “We spend a lot of time dialing in the coffee itself,” she said, which in industry terms means finding the ideal grind setting for a particular coffee and a specific brew method.

What’s more, Neon Marketplace aims to offer the best of both worlds: coffees, espressos, lattes and other barista-style beverages of a premium level, but at a price more suitable for a convenience store or QSR.

“We don’t choose the easy way out. We want to give our customers a quality experience they’ve never had in any convenience store,” Babey said.

Hospitality Hook

To carry the focus on higher quality throughout its stores, Neon Marketplace works with designers and features elements associated with the hotel industry. “We recognize we’re convenience, but we’re also hospitality,” Rasmussen told CSNews, citing muted, warm color palettes that “help emphasize the quality of the food.”

Digital signage and touchscreens, video content at the pump, bright lighting outside, and cleanliness everywhere support the technologydriven aspect of the brand, while painted ceiling tiles and 15-foot-high ceilings provide what Rasmussen describes as an “open, airy feel.” The restrooms feature a curved design with no doors, and the operations director said even the stone and wood selected is meant to “denote a premium experience.”

The company did toy with the idea of placing neon lighting outside to go with its moniker. “But it looked like a ‘70s disco; it wasn’t the right look for us,” Rasmussen recalled. Instead, the company decided to internalize the neon meaning.

“Neon Marketplace is a beacon propelling toward the future. It’s about being a trendsetter and ahead of the curve; a modern convenience company,” Babey offered.

The growth plan for Neon Marketplace is fairly aggressive for the foreseeable future. The retailer plans to open another seven locations by the end of 2022, bringing its total store count to 11. Then, for 2023, it is planning to add an additional 20 stores. All of these new stores will be ground-up, signature, prototype stores. CSN