Compared with adjacent retail channels, U.S. convenience stores have boasted relative strength and sales growth in recent years. Built on the premise of speed, convenience stores are modeled to deliver on specific consumer needs that competing channels don’t yet address fully. While Nielsen research suggests that the strength of convenience stores will continue, it’s not guaranteed, particularly as consumer shopping trips decline, competing channels diversify and e-commerce grows.

The stereotypical convenience-store consumer, affectionately known as Bubba, is changing.

No longer is he solely young, white, male and blue collar. He is more ethnically diverse and, while always on the hunt for craveable foods, he’s increasingly looking for fresh, high quality foods made with “real” ingredients. 

This changing demographic spells opportunity for retailers, but understanding what motivates the modern Bubba is critical in tailoring offerings to meet those needs and desires.

“The consumers, they’re getting smarter,” says Shannon Harvey, food-service and dispensed beverage category manager for Ricker’s Convenience Stores. “They know what they want and that’s what they want.”

Ricker’s is now offering made-to-order breakfast, lunch and dinner options, including pizza, breadsticks, deli sandwiches and more to capture Bubba’s expanding palate and preference for foods with few artificial ingredients. 

“People want good food at a good price and they want to be able to customize it,” Harvey says. “We’re trying to change our mindset from a convenience store to think more like a restaurant.”

There’s no question that c-store consumers are buying more food. Twenty-five percent of consumers report purchasing more foodservice items at c-stores in the past month, largely at the expense of fast-food restaurants, according to Technomic’s Convenience Store Consumer Market Brief from the last quarter of 2016. Forty-nine percent of them are buying foodservice snacks, up 11% from the previous year, Technomic found.

Bubba is now demanding that c-stores stock better-for-you and socially responsible foods. Some 84% of consumers look for c-store snacks that are considered “fresh,” 81% seek out snacks labeled “clean” and 70% want snacks that are “real,” according to Technomic.

Bubba hasn’t stopped seeking out craveable options and is not grabbing low-calorie or ultra-healthy options when selecting c-store food.

“I can’t give a salad away,” Harvey says. “Everyone says they want to eat healthier but they pick up that craveable thing at the c-store.”

When trying to entice today’s Bubba, play up freshness cues, quality and real-ingredient claims in store signage, social media and other marketing materials. Accompany that with appealing images to add to item craveability.

Brought to you by Ruiz Foods

What do truck stops and convenience stores have in common? Both have been around since the first half of the twentieth century; both cater to the fast-casual, to-go market; and both have become staples of our everyday lives.

The business models are similar, too. Owners typically generate a high profit margin on products sold in their stores, while they break even on the gasoline purchase that brought the customer to their business in the first place. Moreover, truck stops and c-stores are always looking for ways to expand their services and capture a larger share of the marketplace. If you operate a truck stop or c-store, here are ten tips that will help you do just that.

1. Embrace the Coffee Craze

The craft coffee craze has been percolating for the past several years now. If you haven’t jumped on board the bandwagon, you really should. According to a July study from the food industry web site, Datassential, 56 percent of today’s coffee drinkers would visit a “craft coffee” shop and 22 percent already have. Switching to high-end, origin coffee, and replacing the glass pot with thermals are steps you can take to show your customers you aren’t just aware of the “revolutionary third wave of coffee”; you’re riding it.