
Chestnut Market Retail is Detail Advantage
January 21, 2025 – As Chestnut Market elevates its presence in the Tri-State area it’s also keying in on operational excellence through its Retail Is Detail program. It’s been five years since Chestnut Petroleum Distributors began aligning its fleet of stores under the Chestnut Market banner. Now, with more visibility in its marketplace, Chestnut Market is mastering execution and consistency with help from its Retail Is Detail program while growing through remodels and new store builds. It’s also making bold strides with a stronger focus on food and the imminent launch of its new mobile app and loyalty program.
Today, the chain operates approximately 75 company-operated convenience stores in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and it’s also a major distributor for Exxon Mobil, Shell, bp, Gulf and Irving, supplying fuel to about 230 locations in the Tri-State area. Now, with the second generation of the family business taking on leadership roles, the chain has its sights set on continuing to expand its footprint in the Tri-State area.
Early Beginnings
Chestnut Petroleum Distributors was founded around 1980 by Mickey Jamal as a single-site Mobil dealer in New Paltz, N.Y. Jamal’s brothers — Sal, Sam and Cal — joined the business shortly thereafter. Today, Mickey Jamal leads the company as CEO. Sal Jamal acts as president, while Sam Jamal serves as chief operating officer and Cal Jamal serves as secretary.
“One thing that we as a company are very proud of in our early roots is the family aspect of the business,” noted Rick Theilig, general manager for Chestnut Petroleum Distributors, which operates Chestnut Market. “The beauty of the family nature of our business is all four of the brothers who founded the company are still very actively involved in the in the organization,” Theilig said.
Today, the second generation of the family business is also active in leadership roles within the company. Second-generation members include Faheem Jamal, who acts as director of c-store operations; Faheem’s cousin AJ Jamal, who serves as northeast director of wholesale fuels and plays a key role in the wholesale division, primarily focusing on New York and Connecticut; and Faheem’s cousin Sharif Jamal, director of real estate and brand development, who is engaged in real estate transactions and helps to ensure the brand is well represented visually at the stores. Faheem’s brother, Farris Jamal, acts as merchandising manager and is also involved in the growth and development of Chestnut’s foodservice programs.
Chestnut saw major growth in the early 2000s, as major oil companies were exiting the business and Chestnut had the opportunity to purchase sites in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York from Exxon Mobil and Shell.
“We were able to grow exponentially through that time, transitioning from a dealer business into a major distributive business across that Tri-State area, to today,” Theilig added.
After some major acquisitions in 2011-2013, the chain had nearly quadrupled in size and was ready to combine its stores under a unified brand identity.
“We were the best-kept secret,” Faheem Jamal said. “We were operating c-stores, but we never had our name out on the street for people to understand that we were Chestnut Market.”
Theilig had long been a proponent of building a brand identify to gain recognition. But first, the company decided to focus on developing consistency between sites, and once that consistency was achieved it was time to roll out the Chestnut brand.
By the end of 2019, the company had developed a new logo and design. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the chain began rebranding its sites to the Chestnut Market brand in the middle of the pandemic.
“When people came out of their caves or wherever they were hibernating during COVID, they were like, ‘Oh, wow, Chestnut, you guys bought everything.’ And we were chuckling to each other, saying, ‘We were here. We’re just the best-kept secret,’” Jamal said.
Growing Chestnut Market
Chestnut Market has continued to grow its footprint since the pandemic through remodels and new builds. It helps that Chestnut operates its own in-house construction company, and Jamal noted the chain has a long pipeline of construction projects on the docket.
In 2024, the chain debuted a new site — which it calls “The Hutch” — on the Hutchinson River Parkway in New York. The new location is a ground-up remodel that features a glass-front exterior and mixes historic charm with modern convenience.
“That was a really big project for our entire company. Every department had their hands in it some way, shape or form,” Jamal said.
Chestnut was also busy completing a number of remodels in 2024. In the greater metropolitan New York area and Connecticut markets, where Chestnut is primarily focused, there isn’t as much available land or opportunity for new-to-industry (NTI) stores compared to the Midwest, Theilig pointed out.
“I think a lot of a lot of our growth is really around the remodeling of old bay garages and turning them into convenience stores, especially in inner city environments where we’re looking at maybe quarter-acre, half-acre lots. It’s difficult to find locations for NTI, so I think a lot of our growth will be more around the remodels. …” Theilig noted.
That said, the company does have two sites scheduled for NTIs in the greater Westchester County area in New York, one of which will open in 2025, and another that is set to break ground in early 2025 in the Hartford, Conn., area. It also has four remodels slated for 2025.
Like many chains that have grown through acquisitions, the size of Chestnut’s c-stores range from 600 square feet to 6,000 square feet.
“Every project that we build, we like to get it better than the last one, and that’s really awesome to see,” Jamal said.
In the New York market, the chain has retrofitted beer caves into its latest remodels, and new sites are incorporating them as well under the leadership of Farris Jamal. The chain is also bringing a higher level of foodservice into its newer locations, moving from a strictly commissary-driven program with cold sandwiches and salads to a broader menu that also incorporates hot foods.
“We’re extremely happy with the foodservice that we just launched in our Hutchinson River Parkway location. Foodservice has been a hurdle for Chestnut Market, and we think we finally made our breakthrough,” Jamal said.
The chain is offering chicken sandwiches prepared on-site, including Hot Honey Chicken on a Waffle, a Spicy Chicken Sandwich and a Classic Chicken Sandwich. Empanadas are a specialty for Chestnut. “We offer empanadas at high, high volume, and it’s a great grab-and-go snack,” Jamal said. “People were asking when we reopened (the Hutchinson River Parkway location) if we were going to have empanadas again. It was kind of a signature for that location, and we are, and now we’re expanding that empanada program across our portfolio.”
Chestnut is also beginning to add pizza options to its foodservice menu.
“We’re really excited about this growth in foodservice for our chain,” Jamal said, adding Chestnut is looking to replicate the success it is having with foodservice at “the Hutch” across the entire chain.
Chestnut Market added bean-to-cup coffee a couple of years ago and has been extremely happy with the results. Jamal noted that having Chestnut team members greet customers and walk them through the process when the machines first rolled out made a big difference in helping convert customers to the new technology.
Theilig noted several benefits of the bean-to-cup program, including a fresh cup every time, a reduction in spoilage — which made a big impact in terms of adding more profitability to the category — and better margins due to less waste as well as stronger sales. Theilig admitted he was skeptical of the program at first, but after seeing the benefits, including better flavor, he expects the chain to continue the bean-to-cup program for the foreseeable future.
Retail Is Detail
One of the keys to Chestnut Market’s success in ensuring consistent quality of service, well-stocked products and clean stores is the chain’s Retail Is Detail/Walk the Store program, which the chain debuted about a decade ago. Under Jamal’s leadership, the program has flourished and incorporated technology to increase accountability and efficiency.
“I’ll give all credit for the Retail Is Detail concept and the launch of the Walk the Store type of program in our company to our president, Sal Jamal,” said Theilig. “Sal has one of the keenest eyes for retail and the detail aspect of it in this industry that I’ve ever been familiar with.”
When Sal was a potato chip route salesman before getting into the retail business, “he saw that ensuring his products were fully faced, fronted and neat and orderly on a consistent basis, as he was going into these bodegas on a day-to-day basis, made a big difference in his product line outselling the other (brands),” Theilig explained.
When the Jamal brothers started their c-store business, they ensured the products on shelves were fully faced and that there were no empty slots on shelves or in cooler doors. Then, the company incorporated a type of Walk the Store model that’s been used by major oil companies, like Shell, and expanded on it by tying in management techniques and technology.
“Think (of) taking a major oil company’s mystery shop type of a program — all the majors, they have their mystery secret shopper programs. We’ve kind of taken that, and then we’ve expanded on it tenfold,” Theilig said.
Through the program, store exteriors are graded on everything from the appearance of the pumps, gas islands and garbage cans to the landscape areas. Inside, stores are graded on each aspect of the store experience from how the associates greet and interact with customers to the condition of the sales floor and restrooms.
In the beginning, Chestnut did the Walk the Store program with a paper and a pencil, grading various aspects of the stores and then manually tallying it. While the program worked, Jamal noted that it was a tedious process that a lot of managers didn’t fully buy into, and the standards weren’t clearly defined at the time. “There was no clear yes or no. Is this clean? Is it not clean?” Jamal explained. The company worked with technology partner Zenput to create a digitized version of the program and solidify scoring that was both challenging and attainable.
“I just did a full day of Walk the Store on this past Thursday, and it was raining and snowing,” Jamal said. “We did eight stores, and each store scored above a 90. I mean, that’s the happiest day for me. I want everybody to succeed and pass, and they didn’t know it was coming, which makes it even better. Using that technology and having the entire team buy into the program, that’s the most important thing,”
Technology also allows the next level of management to be able to easily audit a location manager’s inspection.
“Our area managers are able to see instantaneously exactly what the store manager is seeing through uploading videos … to photographs of certain key areas and places date-stamped at a certain day and time,” Theilig said.
The program incorporates four pillars — family, taking ownership, execution and welcome to Chestnut, and through Chestnut’s overall culture, long-term managers have strongly embraced the tenets of the program, particularly because they take pride and ownership in the store(s) they oversee.
“It all starts with the team, honestly,” Jamal said. “We can give any retailer (reading) this our playbook on Walk the Store, and if your team doesn’t believe in it, it’s not going to work,” Jamal noted.
Keys to growing that team-member buy-in of the program for Chestnut included having buy-in from the top of the company and digitizing the program to make it more accessible for employees.
To get started in launching their own Retail Is Detail-type program, retailers must educate themselves on what the best-in-class practices and standards are for the industry and learn from the mystery shop programs the major oil companies have.
“If you do carry a major brand, and you start there, I think that’s a good place where you can build out from there and then expand it to the different things. …” Theilig said.
For Chestnut, the smallest details matter.
“We want to look at every gum wrapper in the parking lot and make sure that it’s today’s gum wrapper. It’s not a gum wrapper that’s been through three rainstorms and a couple of droughts and has been sitting in the corner of the parking lot for months on end,” he added.
Launching Loyalty
With its stores unified and operating consistent best practices, Chestnut is now ready to turn its attention to tech integration. At press time, the chain was preparing to launch a loyalty program and mobile app in the first quarter of 2025. The launch will mark Chestnut’s first-ever loyalty program.
“We’re right on the cusp of launching something that’s going to be very exciting,” Theilig said. “And really, we think it’s going to bring us to a different level here in our marketplace.”
The chain brought in Abigail Cerra, the former senior manager of innovation and brand marketing at Charleston, S.C.-based Refuel Operating Co. LLC, to be Chestnut’s manager of marketing, loyalty & communications and help spearhead the rollout of the program.
“She’s been working really hard on the backend to build it all out, and when we launch it, it’ll be the best (loyalty) program available,” Jamal said.
Chestnut has also been testing self-checkout technology, having introduced Mashgin self-checkout kiosks in its “The Hutch” location.
“We’re extremely excited about that technology,” Jamal said. “It’s a huge success in that location.”
Since then, the chain introduced the technology to its Old Lyme, Conn., site that opened in September 2024, and plans to add it to more sites in 2025. The technology doesn’t require the customer to scan products. They simply set their items on the self-checkout counter and the products are automatically tallied. Jamal pointed out that some customers attempt to beat the system by adding more products, which is a win for Chestnut because it increases the basket size and overall dollar amount they’re purchasing.
The Chestnut team also has an eye on artificial intelligence (AI), especially in the realm of loss prevention when it comes to camera and security systems that use AI.
Growing Forward
For Chestnut Market, the past decade has largely focused on putting the necessary procedures, plans and technology in place to drive its continued success. Now, with that infrastructure set, Theilig noted the chain is well positioned to take on another major acquisition, if it finds the right opportunity.
In recent years, Chestnut has been organically expanding its footprint by purchasing some of its dealer sites when those operators retire or through single-site acquisitions. As it continues to grow, Chestnuts plans to target its growth in the Tri-State area, with the primary focus being New York and Connecticut.
But for now, the big focus is on the launch of its upcoming loyalty program. The chain also plans to fully integrate its support systems. Up until now the growth of its infrastructure from an accounting standpoint has been piecemeal with a lot of different platforms, and now it’s looking to go forward with one totally integrated package, Theilig explained.
“We should have that completed by the end of this year, and then into next year, we’ll really be hitting the ground running with that and tying that back into the into the loyalty (program),” Theilig said.
As it looks ahead, Chestnut has its sights set on expanding from the 75 stores it has now to 100 sites.
“We’ve talked about being there by the end of the decade,” Theilig said. “And I know if Faheem has his way … we’ll get there before the end of the decade.”
The chain is also looking into the possibility of having its own proprietary fuel brand in the future.
“It wouldn’t be out of the question in the next two to four years that some of our locations would be flying a Chestnut Market-branded type of gasoline,” Theilig said.
Chestnut Market’s passion for its brand and business is reflected at every level, from leadership to store staff, showcasing a deep commitment to customers and community involvement. Its long-standing dedication to supporting local events, charities and initiatives is now more visible than ever before because its stores are unified under a recognizable banner, strengthening its connection with the communities it serves.
“Once we launched the brand, we were able to really identify ourselves and differentiate ourselves in the marketplace,” Theilig said. “And with the next generation coming into the company and … taking active leadership roles, we’re well positioned for the next decade and more to really grow this brand, and that’s where our primary focus is going to be moving forward. …”
Story originally published by CStore Decisions.