Today's Convenience Shopper

By Chrissy Blasinsky

Jayme Gough, director of research and development at NACS, highlighted several trends shaping consumer behavior in the latest State of Convenience Series webinar, Finding Growth Beyond the Forecourt: financial pressures, the growth of foodservice to drive trips inside the store, and rethinking value.

Results from NACS’s shopper insights program, Convenience Voices, reveal that economic pressures continue to impact how customer spending. These real-time decisions and opinions collected from c-store customers found that in 2025, 39.8% said they changed the way they shop the channel due to their current financial situation.

Gough noted that of the approximately 40% of shoppers who are changing their behaviors, nearly 50% say they are choosing less expensive alternatives to products they would typically purchase.

“Customers are being intentional about how they’re spending every dollar; they’re trying to extract the most value they can,” Gough said, adding that 45% of shoppers said there are items they used to buy regularly that they are cutting down on in order to save money, and the majority of those items tended to be in the center store categories.

The second trend is foodservice to build basket value and instore traffic. “We know that beverages are a main reason people come to the channel, second is gas and third is food. C-stores are hitting all the need states,” Gough said, adding that location is key, as 56.7% of customers stop at a c-store because it’s a convenient location.

The 2025 Convenience Voices study also found that nearly 30% of shoppers cited “I’m hungry” as the main reason they visited a particular store, and for those shoppers awho purchased prepared food, 41.5% said that they had previously purchased and liked the food, which suggests brand loyalty and repeat traffic.

The third trend is rethinking the value equation and what it means to customers today. Gough noted that 63.3% of shoppers say they have started using loyalty programs, coupons or taking advantage of promotions in 2025 to help manage their spending. For c-store loyalty programs specifically, the most valued loyalty rewards were gas savings/cents off per gallon (45.2%), followed by coupons or digital coupons (44.2%) and the ability to earn and redeem points across multiple store locations (39.7%).

Expanding Role of Foodservice in C-Stores

Much has been said about the future of foodservice in convenience, and for good reasons. In 2025, foodservice sales accounted for 28.5% of in-store sales. More than 70% of foodservice sales are attributed to prepared food, followed by cold, hot and frozen dispensed beverages, and commissary.

“A successful foodservice program can create loyal fan bases; it can create stickiness with customers. When customers know your food is going to be good, reliable and consistent, they will see you as more of a food destination that also happens to sell gas and merchandise products,” said Gough.

As foodservice continues to expand within the c-store industry, Gough added that it’s also a massive investment: equipment, training, food safety, supply chain and building relationships with your suppliers, spoilage, etc.

“I highly suggest talking to your frontline teams. They're the ones who know what customers are asking for in your stores. Look at regional preferences. Look at regional flavors because taste is the most important thing when it comes to good food and beverages,” she said.

To access more shopper insights and industry benchmarking data, purchase the NACS State of the Industry Report® of 2025 Data. To access insights from the 2026 Convenience Voices data, contact Jayme Gough at [email protected].