The Convenience Store Just Got Smaller—and the Food Opportunity Just Got Bigger

 

The next big battleground in foodservice may not be the restaurant, the grocery store or even the convenience store according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

It may be the footprint between them.

That is what makes Murphy USA’s rollout of an autonomous foodservice platform particularly interesting. The company is testing Automated Retail Technologies’ Just Baked platform in select larger-format stores, with White Castle as the launch food brand. Customers can order branded hot food through a touchscreen and receive it in approximately two minutes, while the preparation, heating and delivery process happens inside a self-contained automated system.

This is more than another convenience-store foodservice announcement.

It is a signal that the food industry is moving into the age of the micro-footprint grocerant.

Murphy USA operates more than 1,800 stores and serves an estimated 2 million customers a day. The company says the autonomous platform can add hot, branded food without requiring the space, labor, infrastructure or complexity of a conventional restaurant kitchen.

That proposition should get the attention of every restaurant, convenience-store, grocery and foodservice executive in America.

Because the consumer does not care how big the kitchen is.

The consumer cares how quickly good food can get into their hands.

And increasingly, consumers are willing to get that food from almost anywhere.

Foodservice Is No Longer an Add-On

The data tells us that convenience-store foodservice has already moved well beyond the traditional image of a roller grill, coffee station and packaged sandwich.

According to the National Association of Convenience Stores, foodservice represented 28.5% of U.S. convenience-store inside sales in 2025 but generated 38.9% of inside gross-profit dollars. Prepared food alone represented 73.9% of convenience-store foodservice sales.

Think about that.

Foodservice is producing a disproportionately large share of the profit.

In fact, NACS data shows just how dramatically the business has changed. Foodservice represented only 11.9% of convenience-store inside sales in 2005. Today it represents more than twice that share.

And prepared food would rank as the No. 1 in-store category overall when measured against the major convenience-store categories, according to NACS.

That is not a side business.

That is a business model transformation.

The Restaurant Is No Longer Defined by Its Four Walls

This is where Murphy USA, ART and White Castle are pushing the industry forward.

White Castle already understands that its brand does not have to live exclusively inside a traditional restaurant. In April 2026, White Castle announced a national relationship with ART to deploy its Crave & Go automated kiosks, initially targeting 1,000 locations. The company specifically identified campuses, hospitals and workplaces as potential locations.

That is channel blurring in action.

A White Castle meal can now potentially be purchased:

·       At a traditional restaurant

·       Through grocery frozen-food distribution

·       Through an automated kiosk

·       Inside a convenience store

·       In a workplace

·       At a healthcare facility

·       At a transportation hub

The brand footprint is expanding while the physical restaurant footprint does not necessarily have to expand at the same rate.

That is a powerful equation.

The Grocery Industry Is Playing the Same Game

Convenience stores aren't the only retailers discovering that prepared food can steal occasions from restaurants.

FMI's 2025 Power of Foodservice at Retail research found that the share of consumers choosing deli-prepared food instead of a restaurant meal more than doubled, from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. More than half of Americans—53%—are now creating hybrid meals by combining deli-prepared foods with items from their own kitchens.

Retail foodservice dollar sales reached $52.1 billion, according to FMI, while its broader fresh-food research reported foodservice sales of approximately $56 billion in 2024. FMI also reported that 87% of retailers were using fresh-prepared foodservice programs.

The message is clear:

Consumers aren't asking whether food came from a restaurant. They're asking whether it solves tonight's meal problem.

That distinction changes everything.

Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat Are Becoming the New Retail Real Estate

The traditional foodservice question has been:

"How much space do we need?"

The better question is:

"How much foodservice can we produce and sell from the space we already have?"

That is a very different question.

A conventional restaurant kitchen can consume hundreds or thousands of square feet, require substantial labor and demand significant equipment, ventilation, utilities, cleaning and management.

An autonomous foodservice unit potentially compresses much of that infrastructure into a dramatically smaller footprint.

That means a retailer can begin asking questions that would have been economically difficult only a few years ago:

Can we put a restaurant inside a convenience store without building a restaurant?

Can we put branded food inside a grocery store without building a QSR?

Can we put a hot meal inside a hospital, college or office building without constructing a commercial kitchen?

Can we turn 100 square feet into a food destination?

Now the answer increasingly appears to be yes.

The "Footprint" Is Becoming a Foodservice Weapon

This may ultimately be the most important part of the Murphy USA announcement.

The competitive advantage isn't simply automation.

It is footprint efficiency.

A traditional restaurant competes for consumers with another restaurant.

A micro-foodservice platform can compete for consumers with virtually every food occasion.

Fuel stop.

Morning coffee.

Lunch.

Afternoon hunger.

Dinner solution.

Late-night craving.

Road-trip meal.

Emergency meal.

And because the consumer is already inside the store, the foodservice operation doesn't necessarily have to create the trip by itself.

The retailer already owns the real estate.

It already has the traffic.

It already has the parking.

It already has the customer relationship.

Now it can potentially add hot, branded, fresh food to the equation.

That is a very different economic proposition.

Convenience Is Winning Because Time Has Become a Food Ingredient

The consumer's definition of value has changed.

Value isn't simply paying less.

Value increasingly means:

good food + acceptable price + little waiting + little effort.

FMI's research reinforces this shift. Consumers increasingly view retail-prepared foods as alternatives to restaurant dining because they deliver quality, variety, time savings and value.

That is precisely where Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat foods become strategically important.

They collapse the distance between "I'm hungry" and "I'm eating."

The winning retailer may not be the one with the largest kitchen.

It may be the one that removes the most friction.

Two Minutes Changes the Competitive Equation

If a customer can order a branded hot meal and receive it in roughly two minutes, the foodservice proposition changes dramatically.

That speed puts the offer into the same consumer consideration set as the fuel transaction itself.

And it creates an interesting marketing proposition for brands like White Castle.

The brand doesn't necessarily need another traditional restaurant location.

It needs another opportunity to satisfy the craving.

White Castle itself describes the ART relationship as a way to reach consumers where traditional restaurants may not be available.

That is the future of foodservice channel strategy.

Distribution is becoming as important as location.

The Grocerant Isn't a Place—It's a Behavior

I've been arguing for years that the grocerant is not simply a grocery-store deli.

It is a consumer behavior.

The consumer wants Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh food wherever that consumer happens to be.

That might be a grocery store.

It might be a convenience store.

It might be a restaurant.

It might be a gas station.

It might be a workplace.

It might be an airport.

It might be a hospital.

Or, increasingly, it might be a machine sitting in a few dozen square feet of retail real estate.

That is why the Murphy USA experiment matters.

It isn't just about White Castle.

It is about proving that foodservice can be detached from the traditional foodservice footprint.

And That Could Be Disruptive

NACS reports that the U.S. convenience industry generated $341.2 billion in in-store sales in 2025, up 1.7%, while total industry sales including fuel reached $817.5 billion.

But the bigger story isn't the size of the industry.

It is where the growth and profitability are coming from.

Foodservice is increasingly carrying the economics of the convenience store.

And retailers are learning that prepared food can drive the visit, increase the basket and create a reason to enter the store rather than simply pump gas.

The next evolution is taking that strategy and shrinking the footprint.

Less square footage. More food occasions.

That is a compelling retail formula.

The Real Opportunity Is Not Automation

Here's where I would caution foodservice executives.

Don't fall in love with the technology.

Consumers don't care that the food was produced by automation.

They care about:

Taste.

Temperature.

Freshness.

Price.

Speed.

Availability.

Brand trust.

Automation is simply the delivery mechanism.

The opportunity is to use technology to make fresh food economically viable in places where a traditional restaurant kitchen isn't.

That is much bigger.

The Grocerant Guru® Bottom Line

Murphy USA and White Castle are not simply experimenting with a new piece of equipment.

They are experimenting with a new definition of foodservice real estate.

The restaurant of the future may not require a dining room.

The convenience-store foodservice operation may not require a kitchen.

The grocery store may not need a bigger deli.

And the consumer may not care where the food was made—as long as it is fresh, hot, good and ready when they are.

That is why I believe the next competitive battle in foodservice will be fought over footprint productivity rather than footprint size.

Three Insights From the Grocerant Guru®

1. Smaller Footprints Can Create Bigger Foodservice Opportunities.
The foodservice industry has spent decades believing that more food requires more square footage. Autonomous platforms challenge that assumption. The opportunity is not necessarily to build bigger kitchens—it is to make every square foot capable of generating a food occasion.

2. Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat Fresh Food Are Becoming the Common Currency Across Channels.
Grocery, convenience, restaurants and other retailers are increasingly competing for the same meal occasions. FMI's finding that 28% of consumers now substitute deli-prepared foods for restaurant meals—and that 53% create hybrid meals—shows how quickly the walls between channels are disappearing.

3. The Winning "Footprint" Is the One Closest to the Consumer's Craving.
The future isn't about putting consumers into a bigger foodservice box. It is about putting desirable food into more of the places consumers already go. White Castle through automated kiosks, grocery-store prepared meals and convenience-store fresh food are all versions of the same strategy: put Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food where the consumer is—not where the foodservice industry thinks the consumer should be.

The Grocerant Guru® prediction: Watch the square footage.

The next generation of foodservice growth may come from retailers discovering that they don't need a larger footprint.

They need a smarter one.

Success Leaves Clues—Are You Ready to Find Yours?

One key insight that continues to drive success is this: "The consumer is dynamic, not static." This principle is the foundation of our work at Foodservice Solutions®, where Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, has been helping brands stay relevant in an ever-evolving market.

Want to strengthen your brand’s connection with today’s consumers? Let’s talk. Call 253-759-7869 for more information.