C-Store Foodservice Sales Jump 28.5% as Fresh Food Sheds Its Cheap Image

Convenience store foodservice sales surged 28.5% over the past year, according to Marie Molde, food industry expert at MenuData.ai, who presented the figure during a recent webinar hosted by The Food Institute. The growth comes as operators upgrade their food and beverage programs and shoppers rethink what a c-store meal can be.

The old assumption that customers choose c-store food because it's cheap no longer holds. Molde said that's "really not the case anymore." MenuData.ai's survey found 66% of consumers say convenience stores match restaurants on offering fresh, quality food. The catch: only 46% say the c-stores they actually visit compare favorably with restaurants. That gap is the opportunity.

Operators are also fighting high price sensitivity and declining store trips. Molde and Jason Gunn, foodservice and technology "spirit guide" with J.W. Gunn & Associates, laid out five trends retailers can use to lift sales.

What's driving the new menus?

Familiar foods, new formats. Pair something familiar with something unexpected, Molde advised. Buffalo chicken, a flavor tied to wings and sandwiches, is moving into new forms: 7-Eleven sells a Buffalo Chicken Roller, and Rutter's offers Buffalo fried chicken fettuccine alfredo. Sheetz turns mac and cheese into hand-held mac and cheese bites. Brisket is showing up across dayparts, from Sheetz's brisket street tacos to Buc-ee's brisket and egg taco.

The rise of Spam. Protein is trending broadly, and Spam is easier to work into a menu than many proteins. "It can be an entree or a snack like a hand roll. It scratches the protein itch and brings a lot of flavors," Molde said in an interview. Rutter's pioneered a limited-time Spam menu using Hormel's product in 2021 and keeps adding items, including a Spam and cheese sandwich, breakfast taco and breakfast burrito. Kwik Trip launched a Spamwich breakfast sandwich in July. Hormel's Spam Dog, which debuted in May, is a natural fit for c-store roller grills, Gunn said.

Hot honey is still hot. The trend is mature in traditional foodservice, but only two of the 11 c-store chains MenuData.ai researched use hot honey. Consumers aged 18 to 34 preferred a hot honey chicken sandwich over a classic one in the firm's survey. "Hot honey checks a lot of the boxes we want to check when we're thinking about flavor and innovation," Molde said. Racetrac added a hot honey chicken and waffle sandwich earlier this year, and 7-Eleven's seven new proprietary sauces include two honey plays: Honey, Please, a honey mustard, and Sweet Like That, a honey garlic sauce.

Chef brands and collabs. "Chef partnerships are smart; people are choosing c-stores for quality food. They believe in c-stores and their ability to provide fresh, favorable food," Molde said. A chef's name tells customers they won't get "a bland item sitting under a heat lamp all morning," she added. Guy Fieri's Flavortown line debuted in 2025 in 10 states and expanded to Circle K stores in Arizona and Nevada earlier this year, featuring a mac n' cheese burger, sweet heat fried chicken and waffle sandwich, cheeseburger burrito, O.G. Hot Italian sandwich and jalapeno potato nuggets. Sheetz worked with Adam Richman and chefs Christian Alquiza and Ian Fujimoto on "Fuel Stop Feast," a miniseries that introduced three limited-time items: the Lumberjack Breakfast Sandwich, Pizza Bagel Bunz Burger and Tater Bomb Nachos. Rutter's and Leo's Market and Eatery are hiring professional chefs, often trained at top culinary schools, to compete with restaurants.

Why pizza is the battleground?

Pizza is the top item consumers say they visit c-stores for, and they expect a more premium offering, Molde said. Papa Johns CEO Todd Penegor has flagged convenience retail as growing competition.

Casey's General Stores rolled out a new pan pizza crust in October after roughly two years of development. It's square, with a "fluffy" crust and edge-to-edge toppings, and Casey's added it partly because many consumers in its markets lacked easy access to that crust type. 7-Eleven's reworked crust has a crispy, bubbly exterior and airy interior, which Molde said should create a more elevated experience.

"7-Eleven has really made a concentrated effort in recent years to be a food-forward c-store operation, and I think this new pizza launch and what they're doing with their food program is evidence of that," Molde said. With two-thirds of consumers already rating c-store food as fresh as restaurants', the retailers that close the remaining quality gap stand to capture the trips.