What Can C-Stores Learn From QSRs?

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.

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.

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.

Continue reading this story in the October 2026 issue of NACS Magazine.