Convenience stores don’t just compete with other c-stores for coffee sales—they’re challenged by QSRs, coffee shops, online platforms and delivery services, plus drive-thru chains like Dutch Bros Coffee and 7 Brew.

But retailers across all channels share challenges resulting from labor shortages, turnover and wage increases. While technology can’t resolve every problem, it can reduce many issues that come with brewing and selling to-go cups.

Bean-to-Cup Boost

Over the last decade, the buzz about bean-to-cup technology has motivated thousands of North American c-stores to install bean-to-cup machines.

“Bean-to-cup equipment has a built-in grinder,” said Anthony Lynch, senior vice president of sales, convenience store, for Westrock Coffee. “All you have to do is add the beans to the machine, and it will grind them, heat the water and dispense the fresh coffee at the touch of a button. The coffee is always fresh.”

Back in 2018, Bruce Goldsmith, president of Baronet Coffee Inc., saw that bean-to-cup machines could alleviate many of the challenges convenience stores face. But promoting them “was a tough decision for a coffee roaster, because the biggest advantage to the machine is that it cuts waste in the store between 30-50%, depending on the store’s brewing procedures,” he said.

“That’s a big reduction in the coffee pounds that we were going to be selling to the stores.”

But the pros outweighed the cons, and Baronet jumped on the bean-to-cup bandwagon. Despite his early reservations, Goldsmith has since actually seen overall poundage increase in the convenience store category.

“Now, the customer is guaranteed a fresh cup of high-quality coffee no matter what time they come into the store,” he said.

Another advantage is labor reduction, he added. “It shifts brewing the coffee from the employee to the customer in a way that … streamlines cleaning and reduces labor while improving the guest experience.”

Our new equipment is designed to give the same kind of beverage you get from your favorite coffee shop at the pull of a lever.”

Automatic Customizations

Technology that automatically adds desired condiments straight into the coffee, then delivers the finished drink to the customer, can also improve the customer experience and keep the beverage bar cleaner.

Providing pre-programmed flavors helps control the drink by providing the proper dosage for each drink’s size and meeting customer expectations for quality, flavor and consistency.

“Many customers aren’t educated on how much syrup to add, so self-service bars can negatively affect the coffee experience,” said Tim Cox, marketing manager for Franke Coffee Americas. “We have technologies—like our automated flavor stations—that integrate with the coffee machine to dispense flavors and condiments into the beverage. If you order a vanilla latte, the machine dispenses espresso, milk and syrup as one complete beverage, which provides variety without burdening the staff.”

A few c-stores now offer a barista-style beverage program, but Cox doesn’t see that becoming commonplace. “In light of increasing wages and the complicated labor market, ultimately, automated solutions will be more prevalent than the clerk-serve format,” he said.

Other available options allow retailers to manage dayparts by pre-scheduling the machine to brew at the appropriate times.

“In a slower daypart, you don’t want to brew so much, and at high demand times, you can have full internal reservoirs within a hot coffee brewer,” said Chairil McLain, vice president for market strategy at BUNN. “You can control how much to brew, as well.”

DIY Drink Programs

When QuikTrip wanted to pump up its coffee offering, its leaders gathered with coffee and equipment suppliers and spent hundreds of hours in the corporate test kitchen to identify ways to produce the best cup of coffee. The result was the retailer’s new Coffee Wow program, which includes everything from new counters to coffee machines.

“We set out to create the first ever equipment for customers to dispense a real latte on demand,” said Aisha Jefferson, corporate communications manager for QuikTrip. “Legacy cappuccino equipment that’s prevalent in c-stores doesn’t produce a traditional cappuccino. It blends dry ingredients and hot water. Our new equipment is designed to give the same kind of beverage you get from your favorite coffee shop at the pull of a lever.”

The machine blends milk, coffee and real sugar to produce a hot or cold latte. “The real magic is the nitro technology, which we developed to create the foamy goodness that a coffee shop gets from using their steam wand,” Jefferson said.

As a bonus, the collaborators also produced a simplified auto-cleaning system that freshens the latte bar at the press of a button. “Both pieces of equipment are a huge lift for the company,” said Jefferson.

Coffee of the Future

Coffee providers will continue to look for ways to improve their services and stay relevant to their customers.

For the past year, 7-Eleven has been assessing its proprietary Coffee of the Future (COFU) machine at an Evolution test store in Dallas. The goal is to provide shoppers with barista-quality coffee and do-it-yourself convenience.

Presently, the COFU dispenses four fresh-brewed coffee blends, along with cappuccino, espresso, latte, mocha, chai latte and cold brew nitro options. All coffee condiments are contained inside the machine to help keep the coffee bar area tidy.

“This machine is the first of its kind, so we are routinely gathering learnings and feedback from customers so we can continue to optimize the unit,” said a 7-Eleven spokesperson.