U.S. consumers continue to express a willingness to get their next hot meal from a convenience store, and the retailers are perfectly happy to give it to them.
The c-store industry has found its footing on prepared food after years of hiring executive chefs, improving menu items, and improving execution, all in a bid to convince more customers to skip the drive-thru.
Casey’s, already a major seller of pizza, is now getting into chicken wings. 7-Eleven, the Irving, Texas-based convenience-store giant, has been pushing meal deals priced at $4 and $5 all spring. Kwik Trip, the La Crosse, Wisconsin-based retailer, offers daily specials like $1.99 BBQ Rib Sandwiches and $1 iced coffees. Wawa, the Pennsylvania-based chain, introduced Snack & Go Tacos earlier this year and upgraded its beverage program.
Circle K, which last year introduced a line of menu items in collaboration with the celebrity chef Guy Fieri, earlier this month introduced Flamin’ Hot Boneless Wings.
The companies are gaining traction. Executives with Casey’s, in comments to journalists last week, said that their prepared food sales were up 10% last week. Alimentation-Couche Tard, the retail giant that owns Circle K, said that its U.S. foodservice sales were up 5% last quarter.
Such numbers stand in direct contrast to the performance of the fast-food sector, which has struggled to keep customers.
“We are still in the early innings in food,” Alimentation CEO Alex Miller told analysts last month, according to a transcript on the financial services site AlphaSense. “Our goal is to drive traffic and to drive sales growth.”
Convenience stores have been an increasingly popular destination for customers over the past decade-plus, as more retailers embrace foodservice as a source of sales and traffic. In 2024, for instance, two-thirds of U.S. consumers told Technomic that they bought prepared foods at retail at least three times per month. That was up from 55% in 2017.
C-stores have a big advantage, in that consumers are routinely stopping at them, anyway, for gas and other immediate necessities. That’s a big advantage in a world in which consumers have less time.
Restaurant chains have long held an advantage on quality. But c-stores have narrowed that gap in recent years as they’ve improved their offerings.
According to Technomic, 90.9% of consumers rated their most recent restaurant visit as “excellent” or “good,” compared with 89.5% of convenience stores, a 1.4 percentage point gap. That’s down from 3.2 points in early 2024.
And value is a huge reason: 81.4% of convenience-store customers called their location “affordable,” compared with 75.6% of quick-service restaurant customers.
That said, convenience stores have been dealing with many of the same economic challenges as restaurant chains. Low-income consumers have been cutting back, which has put pressure on retail sales.
As more restaurant chains have pushed $3 menu items, $5 meal deals, and lower-priced bundles, convenience-store chains have had little choice but to respond.
In May, for instance, 7-Eleven introduced a series of budget offers priced at $4, including a $4 Breakfast Bundle featuring a breakfast sandwich and a side of Waffle Tots. It also sold wrap sandwiches at $4 along with customer favorites such as the Japanese-style Egg Salad Sandwich.
Even without such deals, however, convenience stores have held the line on prices, which some executives argue has helped generate sales through that channel. Casey’s took just 5% cumulative price over the past three years, CEO Darren Rebelez said recently, compared with a 14% price increase at restaurants.
“That translates into more traffic,” he said. “When you look at our traffic over the same period of time, our traffic for prepared food grew 13%, while the QSR industry was down a percent.
Circle K introduced a line of items in partnership with Guy Fieri. | Image courtesy of Circle K.
“People are coming to our stores to buy our prepared foods. They’re finding the right assortment with everything else, and they’re also buying our fuel.”
Convenience stores are also taking a page out of restaurants’ menu playbook. The retailers have upgraded their beverage platforms, offering more drink options. Wawa now lets customers boost their smoothies with protein, for instance. At Casey’s, there is a cold brew station and a fruit Refresher station next to the fountain drinks.
And then there’s chicken. Casey’s introduced chicken wings this year. Circle K introduced its boneless wings. And 7-Eleven launched a “chicken takeover” featuring a lineup of crispy chicken sandwiches, such as a Chicken and Waffle Sandwich, along with boneless wings and wraps.
C-stores are intent on keeping up the momentum, working on new products and on operations to get the quality right and remain competitive with fast-food chains for the convenience diner.
“As we continue to expand the food platform and improve the execution model,” Miller said, “that drives traffic, enhances customer satisfaction and supports long-term profitability.”