The Rise of the Grocerant C-Store: Six Trends Transforming Convenience Retail Into Foodservice Gold

 

The convenience store industry has officially entered its next phase of evolution, and the latest report from Intouch Insight Ltd. provides additional validation for trends the Grocerant Guru® has been identifying, quantifying, and qualifying for more than two decades.

The newly released Convenience Store Trends Report 2026 highlights six trends redefining convenience retail:

1.       Foodservice Continues to Raise the Bar

2.       Growing Beverage Programs

3.       A Shift Towards Health and Trust

4.       The Emergence of Experience-Led Formats

5.       The EV Transformation of the Forecourt

6.       Consolidation and Consistency

For many industry observers these trends may appear new. However, followers of the Grocerant Guru® know these developments have been unfolding for years as convenience retailers increasingly compete not only with other c-stores, but with quick-service restaurants, grocery stores, meal delivery services, coffee chains, club stores, and even traditional supermarkets.

The traditional "gas-and-go" convenience store has evolved into a destination for food discovery, meal solutions, beverages, and lifestyle convenience. Intouch Insight deserves credit for documenting and reinforcing these shifts with current customer experience data.

Trend 1: Foodservice Continues to Raise the Bar

Intouch Insight reports that nearly 60% of convenience stores audited now offer made-to-order food.

That finding aligns directly with the Grocerant Guru's long-standing research documenting the migration of consumers toward Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal solutions. For years, convenience stores have been quietly transforming into neighborhood foodservice operators.

Consumers increasingly seek solutions rather than ingredients. According to FMI research, meal preparation fatigue remains one of the strongest drivers of prepared food purchases. Circana data consistently shows that consumers continue seeking convenient meal options that reduce cooking time, cleanup, and planning.

The Grocerant Guru® identified this trend years ago through the growth of:

• Fresh-made sandwiches
• Made-to-order pizza
• Chicken programs
• Roller grill innovations
• Grab-and-go meals
• Fresh meal bundles
• Mix-and-match meal components

Today's leading convenience chains are competing directly with restaurants during breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacking occasions.

Intouch Insight found that 58% of consumers would choose a brand over a closer competitor because of exclusive food offerings.

That reinforces a principle the Grocerant Guru® has consistently championed:

Food drives traffic. Unique food builds loyalty.

Location may attract the first visit, but food quality and menu differentiation increasingly drive repeat visits.

Trend 2: Growing Beverage Programs

Perhaps one of the most significant findings in the report is that 75% of consumers visited a convenience store during the past 30 days specifically to purchase a beverage without buying fuel or snacks.

This is another trend the Grocerant Guru® has monitored extensively.

Beverages have evolved from an add-on purchase into a destination category.

Coffee programs once drove morning traffic. Today, retailers are building entire beverage ecosystems around:

• Specialty coffee
• Cold brew
• Energy drinks
• Functional beverages
• Protein drinks
• Smoothies
• Fountain beverages
• Frozen drinks
• Enhanced waters

Consumers increasingly view beverages as affordable indulgences and personalized rewards.

The average consumer may hesitate to spend $15 on lunch but willingly spend $5 to $8 on a premium beverage experience.

Leading convenience retailers have learned that beverage innovation often generates some of the highest-margin transactions in the store while driving frequent visitation.

The Grocerant Guru® has long referred to beverages as one of the most underappreciated traffic-building tools in foodservice retailing.

Trend 3: A Shift Toward Health and Trust

Intouch Insight reports that 30% of consumers increased their preference for high-protein options and portion-controlled packaging during the past year.

This trend mirrors broader food industry changes.

The Grocerant Guru® has consistently noted that consumers are not necessarily eating less—they are eating differently.

Today's consumers increasingly seek:

• Higher protein
• Better-for-you options
• Fresh ingredients
• Cleaner labels
• Portion management
• Functional nutrition

Health has evolved from a niche category to a mainstream expectation.

Trust is equally important.

Consumers want transparency regarding:

• Ingredient sourcing
• Food safety
• Freshness
• Product quality
• Nutritional value

The convenience retailers winning today are those successfully combining indulgence with wellness, allowing customers to balance treats with healthier choices throughout the day.

Trend 4: The Emergence of Experience-Led Formats

One of the report's most insightful observations is that some convenience stores are beginning to function as "third places."

The Grocerant Guru® identified this movement years ago as retailers sought to increase dwell time and customer engagement.

Successful retailers increasingly provide:

• Comfortable seating
• Enhanced foodservice areas
• Expanded beverage stations
• Digital engagement
• Loyalty integration
• Community gathering spaces
• Improved restrooms
• Wi-Fi access

Consumers are no longer simply purchasing products; they are purchasing experiences.

The convenience store increasingly serves as:

• A coffee shop
• A lunch destination
• A workspace
• A recharge stop
• A social gathering point

This transformation expands customer occasions while increasing transaction frequency.

Trend 5: The EV Transformation of the Forecourt

Intouch Insight found that only 6% of locations currently feature EV charging stations.

While adoption remains limited, the strategic implications are enormous.

Traditional fuel customers often spend only a few minutes on-site.

EV charging customers may remain for 15 to 45 minutes or longer.

That changes everything.

The Grocerant Guru® has repeatedly highlighted how EV adoption creates new opportunities for retailers to monetize dwell time through:

• Fresh food
• Premium beverages
• Meal bundles
• Digital ordering
• Loyalty programs
• Seating environments

The future EV customer is not simply buying energy for a vehicle. They are purchasing food, beverages, comfort, convenience, and experiences during the charging event.

The forecourt is evolving from a fueling destination into a hospitality destination.

Trend 6: Consolidation and Consistency

As convenience operators expand foodservice offerings and customer missions, execution becomes increasingly important.

This may be the most overlooked competitive advantage in the industry.

The Grocerant Guru® has long argued that consistency beats innovation when innovation cannot be executed consistently.

Consumers expect the same experience every time they visit a location.

That means operators must deliver:

• Product availability
• Food quality
• Beverage quality
• Cleanliness
• Friendly service
• Accurate orders
• Reliable technology
• Functional loyalty programs

A single disappointing experience can erase months of marketing investment.

As chains grow larger through acquisition and consolidation, maintaining operational consistency becomes both more difficult and more important.

Intouch Insight's emphasis on customer experience measurement, operational audits, and execution standards underscores a reality many operators still underestimate:

The best strategy in the world fails if execution fails in the store.

The Bigger Picture: Convenience Retail Is Becoming Foodservice Retail

The most important takeaway from Intouch Insight's report is not any single trend.

It is the convergence of all six trends.

Convenience stores are no longer defined by fuel pumps, cigarettes, or packaged snacks.

They are becoming hybrid foodservice platforms that compete across multiple dayparts and customer occasions.

The industry's future belongs to retailers capable of combining convenience, food quality, beverage innovation, health-focused offerings, digital engagement, and operational excellence into a seamless customer experience.

For followers of the Grocerant Guru®, this report serves as another affirmation that the industry's future lies at the intersection of Ready-2-Eat, Heat-N-Eat, portability, value, and customer-centric food discovery.

The convenience channel is no longer simply convenient.

It is becoming one of the most dynamic foodservice channels in America.

Three Forward-Looking Insights Overlooked by Intouch Insight

1. AI-Powered Personalized Meal Bundling Will Drive the Next Wave of Growth

Most operators still market broadly. The next competitive advantage will come from AI-driven personalization that recommends complete meal solutions based on purchase history, time of day, weather, and customer preferences. Retailers that personalize food recommendations will increase both basket size and customer loyalty.

2. Mix-and-Match Meal Components Will Outperform Traditional Combo Meals

Consumers increasingly want customization and control. Rather than fixed meal deals, successful retailers will offer flexible meal component platforms that allow shoppers to build meals from fresh proteins, sides, snacks, beverages, and desserts. This strategy aligns perfectly with the Grocerant Guru®'s long-standing Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat framework.

3. Social Discovery Will Become More Important Than Store Location

For decades, convenience retail competed on proximity. Tomorrow's winners will compete on discoverability. TikTok, Instagram, loyalty apps, influencer content, and digital food discovery will increasingly determine where consumers choose to stop. The stores that create shareable food and beverage experiences will attract customers far beyond their traditional trade areas.

Grocerant Guru® Takeaway:
The convergence of foodservice, beverages, wellness, technology, EV charging, and customer experience is transforming convenience stores into one of the most powerful food retail platforms in North America. Intouch Insight deserves credit for documenting these trends and reinforcing what the Grocerant Guru® has long maintained: the future of convenience retail is not about selling fuel—it is about feeding consumers better, faster, and more conveniently than ever before.

Stay Ahead of the Competition with Fresh Ideas

Is your food marketing keeping up with tomorrow’s trends—or stuck in yesterday’s playbook? If you're ready for fresh ideations that set your brand apart, we’re here to help.

At Foodservice Solutions®, we specialize in consumer-driven retail food strategies that enhance convenience, differentiation, and individualization—key factors in driving growth.

Email us at Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Connect with us on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

The Phone Is No Longer a Black Box—It's a Consumer-Focused Participatory Marketing Engine

 

Restaurant operators have never had more data available to them. They can track same-store sales, labor productivity, digital conversion rates, loyalty engagement, average ticket growth, delivery profitability, customer retention, and menu performance in real time.

Yet one of the most important customer touchpoints in foodservice has remained largely unmeasured.

The phone.

Recently, Christian Wiens, Founder and CEO of Loman AI, highlighted what may be one of the restaurant industry's most overlooked revenue opportunities: the inability to accurately measure and optimize phone-based customer interactions. Wiens correctly noted that while restaurant operators scrutinize nearly every aspect of digital performance, inbound phone calls have historically remained a black box.

His observation is particularly relevant today because the phone is no longer simply a communication device. As the Grocerant Guru® has stated for years, the mobile phone has evolved into a consumer-focused personal, interactive, participatory marketing tool that influences food discovery, meal planning, ordering behavior, loyalty participation, social sharing, and customer migration.

Consumers no longer separate channels the way restaurant operators do. They move seamlessly between mobile apps, voice ordering, online ordering, loyalty programs, delivery services, drive-thru, curbside pickup, grocery prepared foods, and dine-in occasions. The mobile phone now sits at the center of that entire ecosystem.

That reality makes the phone far more valuable than many operators realize.

Why the Phone Matters More Than Ever

According to multiple industry studies from Circana, FMI, Deloitte, Technomic, and Datassential, convenience, speed, simplicity, personalization, and value continue to rank among the leading drivers of food purchase decisions.

Consumers increasingly seek Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal solutions that save time, reduce meal preparation, minimize cleanup, and provide restaurant-quality experiences at home.

In fact, recent consumer research consistently shows that approximately 80% of evening meals are sourced from home, whether prepared from scratch, assembled from prepared foods, delivered, or picked up from a restaurant. Consumers continue looking for ways to simplify meal acquisition while maximizing convenience and value.

When a consumer calls a restaurant, they are often already deep into the purchase journey. They may be ready to place an order, inquire about catering, reserve a table, ask about family meal bundles, verify menu availability, or seek information that directly influences a purchase decision.

Every unanswered call represents more than a missed conversation.

It represents a missed revenue opportunity.

The Restaurant Industry Has Seen This Before

Wiens compares today's phone opportunity to the evolution of table-turn analytics, and the comparison is appropriate.

A decade ago, many operators estimated dining room productivity using intuition and experience. Then POS systems, reservation platforms, and analytics tools transformed table management into a measurable science.

Operators gained visibility into:

·       Average table turns

·       Daypart performance

·       Labor optimization

·       Revenue contribution by seating section

·       Guest flow patterns

The result was greater consistency, improved profitability, and better customer experiences.

The same transformation is now occurring with phone interactions.

However, the opportunity may be even larger because today's phone serves as the intersection between customer engagement, digital ordering, loyalty programs, AI-driven personalization, and food commerce.

Revenue Per Call: The Next Restaurant KPI

One of Wiens' most compelling concepts is Revenue Per Call.

Restaurant operators routinely measure:

·       Revenue per guest

·       Revenue per labor hour

·       Revenue per square foot

·       Revenue per transaction

·       Revenue per delivery

Yet very few have historically measured revenue generated by inbound phone interactions.

That omission becomes increasingly important because direct phone orders often generate higher margins than third-party delivery orders.

Third-party delivery platforms remain valuable customer acquisition channels, but commissions can significantly reduce profitability. Direct customer interactions provide operators with more control over the customer experience while preserving margins.

Revenue Per Call creates visibility into:

·       Call capture rates

·       Average order values

·       Upsell effectiveness

·       Reservation conversions

·       Catering inquiries

·       Daypart opportunities

·       Lost revenue from missed calls

Once measured, these metrics become manageable.

Rise of Voice AI and Food Commerce

The larger implication of Wiens' analysis is the growing role of Voice AI.

Historically, restaurants lacked the ability to standardize phone interactions across multiple locations. The quality of the customer experience often depended on who happened to answer the phone during a busy shift.

Voice AI changes that equation.

Every interaction becomes measurable.

Operators gain visibility into:

·       Call volume

·       Customer inquiries

·       Menu interests

·       Upsell acceptance rates

·       Customer intent

·       Conversion rates

·       Abandoned interactions

This is particularly significant as mix-and-match meal bundling continues gaining traction throughout foodservice.

For more than 30 years, the Grocerant Guru® has tracked the growth of meal bundling strategies that allow consumers to customize meals based on family size, dietary preferences, budgets, and occasion needs.

Voice AI can consistently recommend:

·       Family meal bundles

·       Ready-2-Eat meal solutions

·       Heat-N-Eat meal packages

·       Beverage pairings

·       Dessert add-ons

·       Limited-time offers

·       Loyalty rewards

Unlike human employees who may be distracted by operational demands, Voice AI can consistently execute these recommendations across every customer interaction.

Why Multi-Unit Operators Should Care

For franchise organizations and multi-unit operators, Revenue Per Call may soon become as important as food costs, labor percentages, customer satisfaction scores, and average ticket size.

Corporate teams already benchmark:

·       Speed of service

·       Loyalty engagement

·       Guest satisfaction

·       Labor efficiency

·       Digital conversion

Phone performance deserves a place alongside those metrics.

A location with strong traffic, favorable reviews, and quality food can still underperform if it fails to convert inbound customer demand.

The difference is that phone performance is now measurable.

That transforms missed opportunities into actionable opportunities.

Channel Blurring Continues Accelerating

The larger lesson is one the Grocerant Guru® has emphasized for decades.

Consumers do not think in channels.

Consumers think in meals, snacks, mini-meals, beverages, convenience, value, portability, and solutions.

Legacy food industry executives often continue managing businesses according to outdated channel definitions such as restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, delivery platforms, and foodservice departments.

Consumers don't care.

They simply seek the easiest, fastest, most affordable way to satisfy a food need.

As Channel Blurring continues accelerating, the phone increasingly becomes the connective tissue linking every part of the customer journey.

Voice ordering, digital ordering, loyalty engagement, personalized offers, meal recommendations, catering inquiries, and customer service interactions now converge through a single device.

The mobile phone.

The Future Belongs to Measured Engagement

Christian Wiens deserves credit for identifying the operational blind spot surrounding phone-based revenue capture and for elevating Revenue Per Call as an emerging restaurant performance metric.

Where Wiens focuses on measurement, the Grocerant Guru® sees an even larger strategic opportunity.

The mobile phone is no longer merely a communication device.

It is the most powerful consumer-focused personal, interactive, participatory marketing tool in food retailing today.

Operators who understand that reality will use Voice AI, customer analytics, loyalty integration, and meal bundling strategies to create stronger customer relationships and higher profitability.

Those who continue viewing the phone as simply a staffing challenge may discover they have been overlooking one of the most valuable revenue channels in modern foodservice.

The data now exists.

The opportunity is measurable.

The advantage belongs to those who act first.

Four Grocerant Guru® Insights

1.       The mobile phone has become the primary gateway to food discovery, food ordering, loyalty engagement, and customer retention.

2.       Revenue Per Call may become one of the most important new performance metrics for restaurant operators seeking incremental sales growth.

3.       Voice AI enables consistent upselling of Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal bundles while creating measurable customer engagement data.

4.       Consumers do not think in channels; they think in meal solutions. Operators that optimize every customer touchpoint—including the phone—will capture a larger share of future food spending.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter