Convenience Stores Growing Dinner with Fresh Prepared Food Sales

Convenience stores now garner 46% of Food Sales after 2 PM. Once consider simply a spot to pick up a coffee and a doughnut fast on the way to work.  Today, convenience stores are at the forefront of the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food platform call the Grocerant Niche driving retail food sales success around the globe.

Today more than half of consumers say they have purchased prepared foods from convenience stores within the past 30 days. Eric Le Blanc, Vice President of Marketing for Convenience Store, Deli & Bakery at Tyson Foods recently stated that convenience stores food sales from 2 PM until 3 AM now account for 46 percent of total sales.

Menu items at leading C-store chains the ilk of Sheetz offering Made-to-Order Pizza, Nachoz, Burgers,  Rutter’s Crabcake burger, Ultimate burger, and Wawa’s custom made Hoagie’s and Breakfast Borritos with Applewood Smoked Bacon are driving customer frequency ,delivering top line sales and bottom line profits.

Today legacy chain restaurants are starting to take notice as C-store foodservice is a $ 11 Billion dollar industry. Fast food and was at one time the sole domain of the restaurant industry, no longer Wawa, Sheetz, Rutter’s and 7 Eleven all have elevated food quality, freshness, and focus.

In a recent report by legacy restaurant research company Technomic found that:

1.       Three-fourths of consumers (76%) who purchase prepared foods from convenience stores report that these locations provide a convenient option;

2.       Two-fifths of consumers say they would visit convenience stores for prepared foods more often if freshness and quality were improved;

3.       Convenience stores top other types of retail locations for breakfast patronage, and convenience stores are the only segment to see a significant increase in breakfast patronage over the past few years. This is likely driven by coffee purchases;

4.       Entrées account for more than half of c-store menu items, with their share of the menu expanding significantly to 51% in the second quarter of 2013 from 47% a year earlier. Sandwich remains the top breakfast entrée.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat Fresh Prepared Food niche aka the Grocerant niche.  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.