WRT selling stuff at a charging station.
The challenge is how SLOWLY you can ‘turn a table’ so to speak.
Customer pulls in, connects charger, HAS to be there 30-75 minutes. Rate of incremental revenue is pretty slow — maybe 2 customers per breakfast/lunch hour per charging station.
*IF* I were a restaurant operator at a high-traffic charging stop, I would definitely find a way to have folks know I was there, serving them, and offered a spiff/incentive. Maybe even a loyalty program is I was along a commuter route.
A possible high-volume location is one near an apartment/ condo where the ‘city folk’ love their EVs, but there’s not enough chargers at the complex. Set up along their normal traffic patterns, capture them for 45 - 60 minutes in the AM. Even if you charge a big mark up on charging, like ChargePoint does, you’d get both ends of the deal - the merchandise and food service AND the electricity ‘up charge.’
Any time you can capture net income from the preening peacocks, catering to their sensitivities, it’s a good thing.
What the heck, you could even mount solar panels over the charging/parking areas and tout ‘green energy’ even though the power generated would be remarkably trivial. “Come buy your green electricity here while you drink you inclusive, responsibly grown and harvested latte extra shots - and use our high-speed Wi-Fi.”
It would work ;-)
See, there goes an opportunity in a sea of negative posts. Clearly location will mean everything.