Super C Mart is a progressive independent grocer. Though its eight stores operate in predominantly rural areas of southern Oklahoma, it has an app with digital coupons, sells sushi in one of its stores and its top two leaders are women. Nikki Carver succeeded her father as president and CEO in 2020, and COO Angela McDermott joined the company this past June.
Carver is the third generation of her family to run Super C Mart. Her grandparents, Ralph and Johnnie Carver, opened a store in 1959 in Erin Springs, Oklahoma. Super C Mart was formed in 1977 when her grandparents joined their store with those of Coy Supermarkets. The Carvers became the sole owners of Super C Mart in 1988, and their son Rod, Nikki’s father, became president and CEO in 1995. Shortly before Rod died in April 2020, she was named president and CEO.
Carver hired McDermott, whose career had been in chain grocery, as chief operating officer earlier this year.
McDermott, a South Carolina native, started her career with Bi-Lo more than 35 years ago. She became a store manager at age 22 and managed several different stores over the next eight years. She then went into merchandising, eventually becoming senior director of fresh foods for Bi-Lo and its sister banner Harveys.
She went back into operations as a district director overseeing 20 Bi-Lo stores until that banner was sold. After that, she landed at North Carolina-based Harris Teeter, managing several $1 million-per-week stores.
Today, she’s working in the independent space for the first time, in a brand-new state.
“I love it. I really do. It’s a great state, very friendly people,” McDermott said. “I love what I do, I love the company that I’m working for. I couldn’t have asked for a better company to come work for to finish out my career.”
Changing, growing
The eight Super C Marts are in the towns of Apache, Carnegie, Kingston, Lindsay, Maysville, Noble, Wetumka and Wilson. Though the Kingston and Noble stores were built from the ground up, the company has mostly grown through acquisition over the years, so the stores feature a range of sizes and services but all are unified under the Super C Mart name.
The Maysville and Wilson stores are 5,000-6,000 square feet, the Kingston store is about 22,000 square feet and the rest are somewhere in between. The Wetumka store is the only one that has gas pumps, but Super C is exploring the possibility of adding them at other stores.
The ground-up Kingston store, by Lake Texoma, opened in 2021 and became the company’s flagship store – a distinction that previously had belonged to the Noble store, which was built in 1985. But Noble may be back in the running for flagship status following its extensive remodel that was completed this year.
About 600 square feet was added to the store, making room for a full-service deli-bakery (only the Kingston store had one previously). The new department allows the store to present shoppers with a full offering of hot food, including fried and rotisserie chicken, ribs and side dishes, as well as salads and sandwiches freshly made in the store. A digital menu communicates the offerings to shoppers.
“The customers love it,” McDermott said.
It has been a challenge to keep the case full of fried and rotisserie chicken from day one, she said. “We almost wish we had gone bigger in that department, because the customers just love it.”
The deli also now features bulk meats and cheeses, including an expanded assortment of specialty cheeses. A sushi station was added at the front of the store through supplier Sushiboi.
“We have a sushi chef that is in our location … and makes fresh sushi every single day. That’s been a huge hit as well,” McDermott said. It may seem odd that sushi would be popular in a rural area, but Noble is right outside Norman, home of the University of Oklahoma campus. It has a strong population base and is experiencing growth.
“We knew that was going to be well worth the investment – we knew there was going to be growth,” McDermott said.
While the Noble store had service meat and seafood departments, a new meat and seafood case was added, displaying about 35 varieties that customers can shop from if they don’t need help from the meat department staff.
A wine department was added, the store’s beer assortment was expanded and – all across the store – the merchandise mix was assessed to be sure it was well tuned to the market.
The Noble store also will become the first Super C Mart to offer lottery, said McDermott, adding that the Lindsay location is the next store they’ll work to get lottery approval for. Further expansion will depend on their experience at those two stores.
Décor changes also were in order for the Noble store, which was largely the same as when built. Gone is the wood-paneled office in the front of the store; it also has new flooring, darker paint on the ceiling and lighter paint on the façade. The sign by the roadway features digital ad space that vendors can buy to support promotions.
“It’s been nothing but positive,” McDermott said of the customer reaction to the remodel. “It’s a huge transformation. We’re doing very, very successfully there.”
Strong meat departments a draw 
Super C Mart is known for its custom-cut meat, with butchers at every store.
“We cut and produce pork, beef, chicken. We do get [some packaged] chicken in, but we are known for our meat department,” McDermott said.
With trained butchers available in each store, shoppers can get custom meats.
“You can come in and ask for anything from the butcher – custom cuts, custom items, anything that you need,” she said.
That’s a point of differentiation in a world where a number of retailers offer only packaged meats. Super C Mart sources its meats through its primary wholesaler, Associated Wholesale Grocers.
AWG, in fact, supplies most of the products found at Super C, save some produce and floral, which are procured from local farms, McDermott said.
Helping customers save
Knowing that most every shopper is having to watch his or her food budget closely these days, Super C Mart does what it can to help.
“We’re always looking for ways to pass on savings to the customer. That’s how you get them to shop with you; that’s how you get them to turn left instead of turn right and go to your competition,” McDermott said.
Super C Mart has a staff member dedicated to combing through AWG’s deals each week to find the best savings to pass along.
“We try to have ‘hot’ ads out on the street” each week, she said, “and we have monthly hot sheets that we put out in addition to our ads.”
The October promotion is called “Fall into Savings.” It features about 100 items that are in addition to the weekly ads. Because of its reputation for meat, Super C Mart also does a monthly Mega Meat Sale flyer that’s about two full pages of meat department items.
“That’s what our customers look for, so we’ll do deeper discounts on bulk buys and different meat items,” McDermott said. “That gives them additional savings on nothing but meat items, whether that’s fresh meat or some of our packaged meat items.”
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Additional savings are available through the Super C digital app linked to the customer’s loyalty card. When a customer spends $400, they get $5 off their next order, for instance.
Digital coupons can be clipped in the app, and “it’s a lot of times attached to the items that are in the ad, so you’re going to get a great price on it in the ad, but you’re also, if you clip that coupon, you’re going to get that digital coupon savings,” she said.
Super C offers a 5 percent discount for customers 55 and older each Tuesday and holds military appreciation events all through the year. For 9/11, military members who presented a coupon received $10 off a $50 order.
Offering high-quality private label products is a way shoppers can save every day, McDermott added.
“We have a great assortment of private label all throughout our store. And actually, our ‘Fall for Savings’ hot sheet that we’re doing in October is all private label product. It’s good quality product at a fraction of the cost of the national brand,” she said. “And we stand behind that product. If they’re not fully satisfied, they can always bring it back for a full refund.”
Super C has Facebook pages set up for each of its stores, alerting customers to deals. If it’s National Donut Day, for instance, there may be a special price on donuts.
“There’s a national ‘day’ for everything, so we try to advertise and put things out there on social media,” McDermott said. “We have a pretty strong following, and if there’s any additional savings or whatever, we’ll pop that out on that Facebook page.
“We’re always looking at how we can pass those savings on to customers, because we all know that’s what they need these days.”
Plans to grow
McDermott said that one of the most attractive things about coming to work for Super C Mart was Nikki Carver’s vision to grow.
“Not only was it a third generation-owned company, but [Nikki] wants this to be her legacy, and she wants to grow the business. She wants to stay in the communities that she’s currently in, but she wants to branch out,” McDermott said.
In keeping with how the company has grown in the past, expansion could come via acquisition or new builds. The “stretch” goal is to add two to three more stores in the next three to five years, she said.
But in the meantime, with Kingston and Noble taken care of, Super C will do some refreshes at the remaining six stores. Next up is the Lindsay location.
“We’re going in and doing merchandising changes, store layout, assortment, things like that,” McDermott said. “We plan on touching all the stores over the next year in some capacity. It’s all about updating and doing what we can for the community and for the location.”
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