3 Big Numbers is a weekly column that looks at a few key details from around the c-store industry.
Rich Products, a popular retail food distributor, recently released its 2025 trends outlook, and many of the findings undoubtedly apply to the c-store industry. The three trends Rich’s broke down were how beverage innovation is fueling growth, consumers redefining value, and how e-commerce continues to dominate.
In today’s “3 Big Numbers,” we look at how the convenience industry is tackling these shifts and which retailers are standing out from the crowd.
15
The number of months Casey’s General Stores spent building its new Darn Good Coffee program.
While c-stores do some innovation in the cold drinks space, many of the more interesting programs are centered around hot coffee.
Some companies may launch LTOs or new machines, but Casey’s took it to a new level with a top-to-bottom reimagining of its coffee program. The result of that, Darn Good Coffee, was more than a year in the making. The program officially debuted in January.
“We were like, ‘All right, we’ve got to get coffee right,’” Tom Brennan, Casey’s chief merchandising officer, said. “We cannot let it stand that everything we were building at Casey’s and that this amazing brand has built over decades isn’t meeting the mark on coffee. And so we really went back to the drawing board.”
The retailer brought in third-party groups to survey customers on what they liked and didn’t like about the previous coffee program. Once Casey’s had the data, it designed something new to address the weak points. It’ll be a while before we know exactly how well they succeeded, but there’s no faulting the effort.
23%
The percent of shoppers who told NACS that inflation is the top issue facing the U.S.
Inflation may be back down to around 3%, roughly one-third of the level seen through much of 2022, but the lingering effect of all those price increases means Americans are still careful with every dollar — and seeking value wherever they can.
In a 2024 survey of c-store customers, NACS found that 23% of respondents said inflation and the cost of living was the top concern facing the country.
Convenience stores have regularly offered lower-priced value meals and other discounts to help bring in customers looking for an affordable meal. In just the past few weeks, EG America, QuickChek and Wawa all revealed discounts. But value can mean more than just price. As Philip Santini, senior director of advertising & food service at Rutter’s, noted earlier this year, reaching foodservice customers requires balancing “quality, convenience, and variety.”
5%
The year-over-year growth in average revenue per store among Vroom Delivery customers.
Delivery has become an unavoidable topic for c-stores in recent years. While some companies, like 7-Eleven, have had fully built out ecosystems for years, others are just getting started with third-party marketplaces like Grubhub or Uber Eats.
Vroom Delivery, a convenience-store-focused delivery tech company, recently released some stats about its users from January. The company saw a 5% year-over-year improvement in its average revenue per store and saw first-party ordering growth outpace third-party for the first time in months. This means customers are increasingly using the retailers’ own apps or websites over an app like Grubhub or Uber Eats.
