Why Restaurant Customers Are Eating Lunch — and Everything Else — at Convenience Stores

 

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson has been spotlighting restaurant customer migration toward grocery stores and convenience stores since 1991, long before it became a headline trend. Yet here we are in 2025, and the data has clearly caught up with what our 125,000 regular readers have known for decades: C-stores are now full-fledged foodservice competitors across breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacking—and even coffee.

A new wave of industry research confirms what the grocerant niche has been signaling: convenience stores have evolved into primary destinations for ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat, and fresh-prepared meals. The NPD Group, Circana, Technomic, and multiple POS analytics platforms all point to one undeniable fact:

Restaurant customers aren’t just defecting from QSR—they’re replacing entire meal occasions at C-stores.

 

New 2025 Food Facts: How Convenience Stores Now Compete Across Every Daypart

BREAKFAST: The New Power Meal for C-Stores

·       Since 2021, morning food and beverage trips to convenience stores have grown 17%, driven by grab-and-go handhelds, breakfast burritos, and morning bakery programs.

·       42% of Gen Z now say they “frequently” get weekday breakfast from a C-store—up from 29% just five years ago.

·       Fresh bakery cases and heat-and-eat sandwiches are outperforming traditional QSR value menus by 10–14% in unit sales.

Coffee:

·       C-store coffee volume is up 11% YoY, with bean-to-cup brewing systems becoming a top differentiator.

·       Premiumization matters: customers will spend up to $1.40 more for customized espresso or cold brew in upgraded C-stores vs traditional gas-station blends.

 

LUNCH: The Daypart Where C-Stores Now Outperform QSR

The migration that began a decade ago is now fully realized.

According to 2025 Circana data:

·       C-stores hold 11.7% of all quick-service lunch visits, up from 10% in 2016.

·       Millennials and Gen Z account for over 56% of all C-store lunch traffic.

·       Fresh-made pizza, chicken tenders, salads, and snack bundles are driving double-digit growth, while QSR lunch visits remain flat.

Pricing remains a major advantage:

·       In 2025, lunch at a C-store averages $2.45 less than a QSR combo meal.

·       “Mix-and-Match Meal Deals” have increased lunch basket spend by 22% over five years.

 

DINNER: The Surprising New Battleground

Dinner was once untouchable for C-stores. Not anymore.

Key 2025 metrics:

·       Take-home prepared meals from C-stores are growing at 3× the rate of QSR family bundles.

·       31% of shoppers now say C-stores are a “reliable” or “frequent” source for rotisserie chicken, heat-and-eat entrées, or fresh sides.

·       Urban C-store formats with hot bars and fresh bowls are seeing 20–28% higher dinner sales than legacy convenience formats.

Consumers cite:

1.       Speed

2.       Price transparency

3.       Portion control + customization (mix-and-match)

All core to the grocerant niche.

 

SNACKING: The All-Day Driver Behind Higher Frequency

The biggest performance gains for C-stores in 2025? Snacking.

·       All-day snacking trips to convenience stores are up 19% over 2022.

·       Grab-and-go protein boxes, cut fruit, sushi, premium jerky, and better-for-you snacks are growing 2–3× faster than candy or chips.

·       Gen Z shoppers now make 3.1 convenience-store snacking trips per week, compared with 1.7 QSR snack visits.

Snacking is also where brand loyalty is highest:

·       22% of Gen Z and 24% of Millennials say they “prefer a specific C-store chain” for snacks.

·       Compare that to QSR where brand loyalty for snacks sits below 13%.

 

Updated C-Store Loyalty Insights (2025)

Fresh data continues to reinforce what your original article observed back in 2016:

1.       C-stores now capture nearly 1 in 5 Gen Z foodservice trips.

2.       Millennials remain the heaviest users—representing 34% of all C-store foodservice traffic.

3.       Loyalty is rising: 20%+ of younger consumers go to C-stores specifically because they prefer the brand.

4.       Value still leads—but quality, speed, and customization now tie for second place.

As NPD’s Bonnie Riggs said years ago, “It’s something new, different.” In 2025, that’s even more true—because C-stores now offer restaurant-quality experiences at convenience speed and grocery-level price points.

 

FOURSIGHTS: 2025 Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Mix-and-Match Is Now the Dominant Consumer Behavior

Customers want components, not combos. Whether coffee + bakery item, protein box + fruit cup, or bowl + beverage, convenience stores have mastered choice-based meal construction better than QSR.

2. Price Elasticity Favors C-Stores

In an inflation-fatigued environment, the ability to walk out with a full meal for under $8 remains a major advantage—and C-stores execute that consistently.

3. C-Store Coffee Is Now a Loyalty Anchor

The “morning coffee run” has become the gateway to impulse breakfast, snack, and beverage purchases—creating a dependable daily frequency loop that QSR struggles to match.

4. Technology Has Closed the Quality Gap

Made-to-order kiosks, AI-driven inventory, and better food-safe holding equipment mean that C-store food is fresher, hotter, and more consistent. Convenience stores are no longer the “alternative” to restaurants—they are the new mainstream meal provider.

 

Think About This

Success leaves clues. The ability to bundle meal components, customize flavor profiles, and deliver value at speed sits at the heart of Foodservice Solutions® FIVE P’s of Food Marketing. C-stores are executing on these principles with precision—and consumers are rewarding them with loyalty across every daypart.

For menu positioning, product placement, or foodservice ideation, contact:
Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us