Casey’s Wings Are Flying: The Convenience Store Continues Its March Into Restaurant Territory

 

There is something important happening at Casey’s General Store, and it has very little to do with chicken wings alone according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

The wings are simply the latest evidence.

For decades, Casey’s has been quietly proving that consumers do not necessarily care whether a meal comes from a restaurant, convenience store, grocery store or another retail channel. They care about price, value, service, quality, convenience and timing.

That is precisely where Casey’s and the Grocerant Guru® philosophy intersect.

I call it the Price Value Service Equilibrium: consumers continuously balance what they pay, what they receive, how good the experience is and how easily the food fits into their lives.

Casey’s is increasingly building its prepared-food business around that equilibrium.

And now, chicken wings are giving the company another way to win the consumer's food dollar.

The Wings Are Flying — But Look at What They Are Really Doing

Casey’s latest chicken-wing results are particularly interesting because the company is not simply selling more food to existing pizza customers.

According to CEO Darren Rebelez, about 38% of guests purchasing wings have placed a wings-only order.

That distinction matters.

It means the customer did not necessarily come to Casey’s for pizza and decide to add wings.

The wings created a new food occasion.

Even more important, customers who purchased wings on a wings-only occasion subsequently increased their overall frequency of prepared-food purchases from Casey’s by approximately 30%.

In the Des Moines market, where Casey’s has had wings the longest, wing sales were up 46% year over year in the latest quarter.

That is not simply a new menu item.

It is an occasion-building strategy.

And occasion building is one of the most powerful tools available to a modern grocerant operator.

Casey’s currently has wings in approximately 850 stores and is beginning another rollout phase. Management has said it sees substantial room to expand the category.

The strategic objective is remarkably clear:

Do for wings what Casey’s already did for pizza.

Remember When Casey’s Was “Just” a Convenience Store?

This is where the history becomes important.

Casey’s began as a small-town general-store concept in Iowa. Over time, the company evolved from a place primarily associated with fuel, groceries and convenience into a retailer increasingly associated with prepared food.

The pivotal move was pizza.

Casey’s introduced its made-from-scratch pizza in the 1980s, and pizza became a foundational part of the company's identity. Casey’s celebrated the 40th anniversary of its pizza business in 2025.

Historically, the company did not stop with pizza.

It added sandwiches, bakery products, breakfast foods, donuts, beverages and other prepared foods.

By the mid-1990s, Casey’s was already describing prepared food as an important part of its product strategy, including made-from-scratch pizza and commissary-produced sandwiches.

That was an early version of what I have called the Grocerant Revolution.

The retailer wasn't asking:

“Are we a restaurant?”

It was asking:

“What food does the customer want, and can we make it conveniently available?”

That is a very different question.

From 50 Million Pizzas to the Next Food Occasion

Today, Casey’s says it operates roughly 3,000 convenience stores across 19 states and describes itself as the fifth-largest pizza chain in the United States by number of kitchens. The company also reports roughly 800 million guest transactions annually.

The pizza business is enormous.

Casey’s sells the equivalent of approximately 50 million whole pizzas annually, making pizza one of the company's most important prepared-food traffic drivers.

But here's the strategic lesson:

A successful food platform does not have to remain a one-product platform.

Pizza gets customers thinking about Casey’s as food.

Wings give them another reason to return.

Breakfast gives them another.

Sandwiches give them another.

Bakery gives them another.

Beverages give them another.

And suddenly the convenience store is no longer competing for only the “I'm getting gas” occasion.

It is competing for what's for dinner, what's for lunch, what's for breakfast, what's for tonight's gathering and what can I grab right now?

That is grocerant thinking.

The Food Sales Numbers Tell the Story

The financial results demonstrate that Casey’s prepared-food strategy is not merely marketing language.

In fiscal 2025, prepared food and dispensed beverage revenue reached approximately $1.61 billion, up from $1.46 billion in fiscal 2024 and $1.32 billion in fiscal 2023.

That represented a 10.3% increase in prepared-food and dispensed-beverage revenue in fiscal 2025, driven by 3.5% same-store sales growth plus growth from additional stores.

Then came fiscal 2026.

Prepared food and dispensed beverage revenue increased to approximately $1.78 billion, while same-store sales increased 5.2%. Casey’s specifically identified strong whole-pizza performance as a major driver.

And the momentum continued into fiscal 2027.

For the quarter ended July 31, 2026, prepared-food and dispensed-beverage same-store sales increased 4.8%, while the category's margin reached 59.3%. Casey’s reported that positive traffic, led by whole pizzas, drove the prepared-food performance.

Put those numbers together and a pattern emerges:

Prepared food isn't an accessory to Casey's convenience-store business. Prepared food is increasingly one of the reasons customers come inside.

That is a profound change.

The Price Value Service Equilibrium Is Working

This is where I see a direct alignment between Casey’s strategy and the Grocerant Guru® Price Value Service Equilibrium.

Consumers don't evaluate food based on price alone.

They evaluate the entire proposition:

Price + Quality + Service + Convenience + Experience = Perceived Value

Casey’s has an interesting competitive advantage because it can combine several things in one stop:

·       Convenience

·       Extended hours

·       Fuel

·       Prepared food

·       Beverages

·       Grocery items

·       Speed

·       Multiple occasions

·       A familiar local retail presence

And, importantly, price remains part of the equation.

Casey’s management has historically emphasized competing on price as well as location, extended hours, product offerings and quality of service.

That is precisely the equilibrium.

Consumers don't necessarily need Casey’s to be the cheapest possible food provider.

They need Casey’s to make the total value proposition feel right.

Pizza Taught Casey’s the Lesson. Wings Expand It.

There is a subtle difference between selling another menu item and creating another occasion.

Casey’s wings appear to be doing the latter.

A pizza can be dinner.

A pizza can be lunch.

A pizza can be a family meal.

A pizza can be a game-night purchase.

But wings can introduce different consumption occasions:

Friday night. Football. A party. A snack. Dinner for one. Dinner for two. A late-night meal. A shareable food purchase.

That is why the 38% wings-only figure is so important.

The consumer is telling Casey’s:

“I don't need pizza to buy food from you.”

That is an enormously valuable consumer message.

And Then There Is the Marketing Message

Marketing matters here.

Casey’s has spent decades building recognition around pizza, but the brand's messaging increasingly positions the retailer as a destination for food rather than merely a place that happens to sell food.

That distinction is critical.

The marketing message isn't simply:

“We have wings.”

It is closer to:

“Casey’s is a place where you can get the food you want, when you want it.”

That is a much bigger idea.

And it is consistent with how successful grocerant concepts grow.

The consumer doesn't want channel definitions.

The consumer wants solutions.

They don't wake up and say:

“Today I would like to purchase food from a convenience-store foodservice operator.”

They say:

“I'm hungry.”

Or:

“What's for dinner?”

Or:

“I need something for the game.”

Or:

“I need food now.”

The retailer that solves that problem wins the occasion.

Casey’s Is Still a Convenience Store — Just Not Only a Convenience Store

This is the historical progression worth watching.

Casey’s did not abandon convenience retail.

It expanded the meaning of convenience.

Fuel is convenient.

A pizza is convenient.

A wing order is convenient.

A breakfast sandwich is convenient.

A beverage is convenient.

And putting all of those things under one roof makes the store more relevant to more consumer occasions.

That is why I continue to believe the future of food retail is not about protecting traditional channel boundaries.

There are no silos in the consumer's mind.

The consumer sees:

Food.

Casey’s increasingly sees it that way, too.

And the wings are simply the latest proof point.

Three Insights From the Grocerant Guru®

1. The next growth opportunity is the next occasion.

Casey’s isn't simply asking, “How many wings can we sell?”

The more important question is:

“How many new occasions can wings create?”

The 38% wings-only purchase rate and the roughly 30% increase in prepared-food purchase frequency among those customers suggest the answer could be significant.

The lesson for every grocerant operator is simple:

Don't just add products. Add reasons to return.

2. Price gets the consumer's attention. Value gets the transaction.

The Casey’s model demonstrates why the Price Value Service Equilibrium matters.

A consumer can find food almost anywhere.

But the combination of price, quality, speed, convenience, service and availability determines whether the consumer believes the purchase was worth it.

That is why Casey’s does not have to become a traditional restaurant to compete with restaurants.

It can create a different value equation.

3. The future belongs to food retailers that think in occasions, not channels.

Casey’s historical evolution—from general store to convenience retailer to major pizza operator and increasingly sophisticated prepared-food destination—is a case study in the Grocerant Revolution.

The next generation of food competition will not be:

Restaurant vs. convenience store.

Or:

Grocery vs. restaurant.

Or:

C-store vs. QSR.

It will be:

Who can solve the consumer's food occasion best?

Casey’s wings are flying because they are doing more than selling chicken.

They are giving consumers another reason to think:

“Casey’s has food for that.”

And in the modern grocerant marketplace, that may be the most valuable marketing message of all.

The consumer doesn't care what channel you call yourself. The consumer cares whether you deliver the right Price Value Service Equilibrium at the right time.

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.

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