Availability, customer service, convenience, value for money and healthy options are top of customers' shopping lists in the independent sector, according to consultant HIM.

While availability is improving and customer service is pretty good, retailers need to think harder about their marketplace, says HIM, applauding the Sharrintons' use of different shopping missions to lay out zones in-store. Shoppers have higher expectations than ever before, it says, and they are also buying a bigger and more varied basket of shopping in a c-store so it is important that businesses get this right.

But it is sometimes not enough to have well-stocked shelves and smiling staff. The most effective stores offer extras to make them stand out in the high street.

A lot of c-stores offer food-to-go and ready meals. Biddles Convenience Store in Webheath, Redditch, offers home-made meals such as chilli and shepherd's pie along with cakes and pizzas. Owner Simon Biddle insists that, with margins of between 40% and 50%, the venture is very profitable and has pushed up average basket spend to £8.

Meanwhile, the recently opened Virginia Quay Budgens in London's Docklands is the first in the grocery chain to have its own smoothie bar. Owner Andy Patel says the drinks are easy to make as the fruit is frozen and therefore portion-controlled. The profits are excellent, says Patel, who expects sales to take off this summer.

Healthy eating was taken a step further by Martin Smyth at his Spar store in Belfast where he ran a 'Check-up at the Checkout' day with the help of a local health information project. More than 70 customers took part in free blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar level tests in the shops.

"The bar has been raised," says HIM director Peter Segal. "More people care about what's in their food so c-store retailers need to offer more healthy options."n