Buffalo Wild Wings? Wingstop? Nope. This photo came from 7-Eleven to market March Madness. | Photo courtesy of 7-Eleven.
Fast-food restaurants have faced a lot of challenges over the past couple of years. Consumers have been battered by inflation. They’re frustrated by higher prices and are making that known on social media.
There’s weather. In many markets Hispanic consumers are under pressure. More Americans are using GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. And those kids keep changing the way they use restaurants.
Add another problem to the list: Convenience stores are taking a discernable share of traffic.
That, at least, is according to a study by Restaurant Business sister company Technomic. In the third quarter, 15% of customers who visited a convenience store would have considered going to a fast-food restaurant. The biggest problem came during lunch, when 39% of such customers opted for a convenience store.
Unsurprisingly, the chain that lost the most business to convenience stores was McDonald’s, where 38% of c-store customers who said they’d considered a fast-food restaurant would have gone. But Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A and Subway were all mentioned.
To be sure, anybody with two eyes has known about the growing competitiveness between convenience stores and fast-food restaurants. This has been happening for years.
C-stores have moved increasingly to prepared food as a way to blunt the loss of business from sales of cigarettes and as a way to convince more gas customers to get out of their cars and go into the stores.
It’s working, too. Customers’ views of convenience stores are improving. Another Technomic report in January found that 45% of convenience-store foodservice customers rated their experience as “excellent” on a recent visit, up from 41% two years ago.
Convenience stores have improved their food items, making them a legitimate draw for hungry consumers, such as chicken at the Midwestern chain Kwik Trip or specialty sandwiches at Wawa. 7-Eleven has developed its own restaurant chain, Laredo Taco Company, and marketed wings and pizza for March Madness. Casey’s is one of the biggest pizza chains in the U.S.
Some are even getting into the drive-thru coffee business, such as the convenience-store chain Town Pump, which is creating a brand called Stonehouse Coffee Shots, according to our sister publication CSP Daily News.
And many have meal deals that look an awful lot like what you’d see at Taco Bell or Wendy’s, such as the $3, $4 and $6 meals you can get at Circle K.
Convenience stores also have an advantage over much of the business in that they’re frequently built for in-and-out traffic, which can make them desirable destinations for on-the-go customers.
And they have the added benefit of other items, including a robust selection of beverages, not to mention things like ATMs, lottery tickets, snacks and, of course, transmission fluid.
For restaurant chains, the answer to all this is relatively simple: Make sure that what you’re offering is worth going to. Because there’s probably a really good competitor right down the street.
