As the saying goes, no one wants to be a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. Finding a niche in foodservice can be a tall order, but with consumers having more choices than ever, it’s critical to be known for something.
QSRs and fast casuals have become much more intentional, said Huy Do, research and insights manager at Datassential, Chicago. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, they’re offering signature food because they know what their foodservice identities are.
Convenience stores can learn from that. “The opportunity is to make c-store food feel less like an afterthought and more like a destination,” Do said.
In general, focused menus tend to perform well in limited-service environments “because they are easier for consumers to understand and easier for operators to execute,” Do said. “Brands that are famous for a few things often have stronger identities, better consistency and clearer consumer associations.”
One c-store retailer following that path is Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’s General Stores. It has become the fifth-largest pizza chain in the United States thanks to its made-to-order pizza program. Casey’s stores are sometimes the only place in some of the small towns where they operate to offer pizza.
The limited-service restaurants that are succeeding, said Mike Kostyo, vice president of foodservice consultancy Menu Matters, Arlington, Vermont, are those that “choose a lane and stick to it.”
“Too many brands try to be everything to everyone, which means they don’t have a clear value proposition that stands out in a crowded content landscape,” Kostyo said. “In general, focused quality is better than mediocre breadth.” He pointed to Raising Cane’s, which offers high-quality chicken fingers and almost nothing else.
Here’s a look at some other retailers that are trying new things, improving their loyalty programs and offering craveable items.
1. Cold Drinks=Cold, Hard Cash
Cold and frozen coffee beverages are projected to grow at three times the rate of hot and specialty coffee through 2028, according to Chicago-based Technomic.
Cold beverages have been outperforming everything else in the quick-service and fast casual industries, said David Henkes, senior principal and head of strategic partnerships for Technomic. The category encompasses cold coffees, refreshers, teas, lemonades, energy drinks, dirty sodas and combinations thereof.
Their performance is driven partly by economics, Henkes said. Customers might be dining out less, “but they’re still looking for that indulgent experience and something they can’t easily make at home,” he said.
Cold beverages now constitute 75% of Starbucks’ global sales, and QSRs are following suit with huge investments into cold beverages, Henkes said.
This provides a great opportunity for c-stores. Cold drinks are an affordable experience in a location consumers already associate with beverages. And convenience stores can do it in their own way: Starbucks may be making the drinks by hand, but c-stores can provide the equipment for customers to create their own.
“The key part is customization, creating almost unlimited options for consumers,” Henkes said.
To offer those unlimited options, a store needs to have a few base drinks and lots of syrups and other additions. And convenience stores don’t have to go whole hog on this, either. They can push boundaries and innovate, but less so than a QSR, and still be on-trend, Henkes said.
2. Make AI and Other Tech Work for You
Urban Egg, a breakfast, brunch and lunch restaurant, had a loyalty program that may have been doing a lot for customers, but there was no way to know.
The EGGsperience program limited the company’s ability to engage with guests outside the restaurant and didn’t integrate with its POS or digital side, “so we had no view into what was driving visits,” said Cassie Pinckney, vice president of marketing.
So Urban Egg turned to an AI tool to create a persona of its target customer. Then it used that persona to determine what would resonate most with customers. “It was important to create a program that was less about points and more about recognition, exclusivity and creating meaningful conversations,” Pinckney said.
Through the new program guests earn “yolks,” which they can redeem for drinks, entrees, exclusive merchandise and even benefits such as skipping the wait line.
Dillas Quesadillas—which pretty much just sells quesadillas—has been optimizing AI and technology to improve employee scheduling and help with food prep.
Owners Maggie and Kyle Gordon use Sling, a digital scheduling platform that takes into account employees’ shift preferences and schedules them in the most cost-effective way, based on how busy it expects a restaurant to be.
“It aligns on availability, and it spreads out the labor and makes it more efficient,” Maggie Gordon said. “Operators tend to put their favorite people on shift more often, but they might be the most expensive.”
Dillas also uses PreciTaste, an AI tool that predicts how much product a store needs to prep on a specific day. It figures in weather, holidays and current events that could affect the stores. “It takes this burden away from the hourly workers and makes their job so much easier,” Maggie Gordon said.
Once the program has run in a store for a while, the Gordons assess its accuracy and then tweak it as necessary. She described the tool as 80 to 90% accurate, and human predictions as 60 to 70% accurate.
3. Optimize Your Menu Board
How you design your menu board matters. If you’re not using it to increase sales, you’re leaving money on the table.
When customers look at a menu board, they look at the top first, so put items with the highest profit margins there, said menu engineer Sean Willard. If customers come in mostly for a sandwich, put those further down the board.
And for easy menu navigation, offer as many subcategories as you can. Break things up with subcategories by protein, base or flavor profile, because “they match how a guest is already deciding what they’re in the mood for,” Willard said. Subcategories shouldn’t have more than seven items.
Bundle items as much as you can to encourage customers to order up. Seafood restaurant Bob’s on the Rocks in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, lets customers upgrade from fries to the Canadian specialty poutine, and customers tend to go for the upgrade more if they see it next to the item it’s upgrading. Upgrade suggestions from employees or at the point of sale “can lift upgrade sales 15 to 30% or more,” Willard said.
Bundle options should be easy to understand. They should either be ordered by number or with an easy “add A and B for $X.”
“Simplicity wins,” said Willard. “The fewer bundles you offer, the more likely each one is to sell; too many choices, and guests start to feel overwhelmed.”
Photography on menu boards can drive sales by 30% or more, but images work best used sparingly. The more photos on a board, the less each one earns, said Willard. “Reserve them for the items you most want to push.”
And make sure your photography is professional. A poor photo can do more harm than no photo at all, because guests expect the dish to match the picture. Dynamic pictures—for example, a soup with steam coming off it or a drink with trickling condensation—boost sales the most.
Photography can change frequently on the menu board, but the menu shouldn’t. “When the menu selections rotate, a guest can be reading and watch the slide change, and now they’re waiting [to see it again],” Willard said. “That’s frustrating and off-putting.”
Don’t forget to make use of special sections on the board. Bob’s on the Rocks saw poutine sales increase by six or seven times by putting it in its own section with a description.
4. Get on the GLP-1 Bandwagon
According to Statista, 12% of Americans are taking GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which reduce appetite. Customers taking the drugs also want lots of protein to boost their muscle mass.
Mahana Fresh, a better-for-you fast-casual concept based in Idaho Falls, Idaho, introduced a GLP-1-friendly menu earlier this year.
After researching consumers taking the medications, Mahana Fresh introduced a three-item menu. It was so successful that this past summer, it added three more GLP-1-friendly options.
“We did a deep dive into what the GLP-1 guest is looking for, and it’s nutrient-dense and protein-packed, and they don’t want to pay for a portion they’re not going to consume,” said COO Dave Baer.
The GLP-1 meals cost around $2 less than most of Mahana Fresh’s entrees. They include significantly less food—they are somewhere between a kids meal and a regular entrée, said Baer. A lot of people feel guilty if they don’t finish their food, and some don’t like leftovers or don’t want to carry them around, he said, so this menu checks multiple boxes.
Other chains are also targeting this consumer. Chipotle rolled out Chipotle High Protein Meals, geared to GLP-1 dietary advice; Smoothie King launched a GLP-1 support menu with items high in protein and fiber and sugar-free; and Popeyes debuted snack-sized chicken wraps.
5. Advertise Your Value Loud and Clear
Amid high prices on everything from groceries to gas, value is a leading driver of loyalty in convenience stores. And that message to consumers should be explicit.
According to Datassential, 63% of consumers say prepared food from a c-store or grocery is cheaper than fast food, and 53% say they get more food for the money. More than half (57%) of dissatisfied QSR guests cite price as the biggest detractor.
“To capitalize, c-stores should make value more visible: meal deals, beverage bundles, breakfast combos, family meals, fuel-linked rewards and app-based foodservice discounts,” Do of Datassential said. “The value message should be simple, bold and comparable to QSR pricing.”
“Value is king right now,” said Dan Sweatt, senior marketing manager for sports-focused restaurant Wings and Rings. Foodservice providers need to offer deals that are clear and easy to understand and have significant value.
But that value needs to be obvious. “Customers don’t want to do math or a logic puzzle to figure out what they’re getting,” Sweatt said. “They want to know if they’re saving $5 or 20%. They want to jump through as few hoops as possible.”
When Wings and Rings has run a value offer without explaining what the savings are, “it’s been a dud,” Sweatt said. Offering a free side of fries—which costs $3 to $5—has much less success than offering 10% off an order over $10. The redemption rates for the latter “are through the roof,” he said. “It’s a clear, simple offer that potentially gives us the leg up on our competition.”
Wings and Rings offers daily value meals such as 40% off wings on Tuesdays. Kids eat free on Fridays, and happy hour happens daily. Value is especially important at dinner, Sweatt said, because people almost expect to get a value for lunch.
“Dinner is the time when you go out with your family, and that’s when money starts to compound,” he said.
