Dive Brief:

• RaceTrac is now using Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s ProLiant servers and its compute system in all of its convenience stores, according to a Wednesday press release from HPE. 
• The updated technology is expected to give customers a consistent experience and “optimize workloads across self-service gas pumps, in-store checkout, inventory management and employee resources,” according to the release. Future uses could potentially include finding and preventing fraud or tracking inventory in real time. 
• RaceTrac is the latest convenience store retailer turning to tech innovations to streamline and unify systems and enhance data capabilities.

Dive Insight:

For convenience retailers, the ability to seamlessly connect information and access across the enterprise is vital as data management becomes a priority around the industry. 

In its partnership with HPE, RaceTrac is using the compute environment to support efforts like self-pumping gas pumps, payments processing and customer loyalty. It will also power store management systems like security cameras, digital timecards, scheduling, accounting summaries and ordering inventory.

“In addition to making our customers’ experience simpler and more enjoyable, the new compute environment will enable us with capabilities to harness the power of data to make better business decisions,” said Tyler Grubbs, executive director of store systems and technologies at RaceTrac. 

As the company grew over the past few years, Racetrac found it had an array of in-house systems that made life for its IT team difficult, according to a case study HPE posted. 

In order to find a solution to unify its technology, the company did a 30-store pilot with five different tech solutions in 2021, an HPE spokesperson said via email. In the end, RaceTrac decided to go with HPE, and has now rolled that technology out to all roughly 800 stores under both its RaceTrac and RaceWay banners. 

“RaceTrac is a powerful example of a retail organization embracing data-first modernization to power new applications and drive better business outcomes,” said Neil MacDonald, executive vice president and general manager of Compute at HPE. 

The convenience retailer also uses the tech company’s Alletra Storage solution to increase operational efficiency, increase its storage capacity and simplify data management.

This continues a series of recent innovations for RaceTrac. The company opened its first electric vehicle charging station in October and is currently seeking approval for state-of-the-art store planned to provide research and development space as well as training areas and a chef’s kitchen.

Tech upgrades are increasingly bolstering operations for convenience retailers. For instance, BP, which increased its exposure to the c-store industry further earlier this year with its purchase of TravelCenter of America, recently announced it would use Microsoft Copilot to automate some rote tasks and free up employee time for more important work. 

Atlanta-based RaceTrac operates more than 570 convenience stores across Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Tennessee. It also operates or franchises over 200 RaceWay locations in 11 states along the lower East Coast and the South.