C-Store Coffee Menu Importance
Year ending December 2013
When compared to QSR coffee menu importance, traditional coffee has the highest importance at c-stores (9.6% menu importance vs. 7.2% at QSRs), while specialty is still highest at QSRs (6.6% menu importance vs. c-stores’ 3.4%).
| Beverage | Percent of meals and snacks that include item |
| Traditional coffee | 9.6% |
| Specialty coffee | 3.4% |
Source: The NPD Group Inc./CREST
C-Store Hot-Beverage Share of Sales
Calendar Year 2013
Technomic Inc. estimates that c-store hot-beverage sales totaled $5.5 billion in 2013, up 11% from the year prior.
| Beverage | Share of sales | C-store sales |
| Coffee | 73% | $4.0 billion |
| Specialty hot coffee | 24% | $1.3 billion |
| Hot cocoa | 2% | $85 million |
| Hot tea | 1% | $74 million |
Source: Technomic Inc.
Day-Part Distribution
Most away-from-home serving incidences for coffee happen in the morning, with 68% of brewed coffee servings, for example, being poured at that day-part, according to Datassential. However, while more than one-half of iced- and frozen-coffee incidences occur in the morning, a respectable percentage—or one-third—happen midday.
| Coffee type | Morning | Midday | Evening |
| Brewed coffee | 68% | 24% | 8% |
| Specialty coffee | 60% | 27% | 13% |
| Iced coffee | 55% | 34% | 11% |
| Frozen coffee | 53% | 33% | 13% |
| Iced tea | 26% | 54% | 20% |
| Hot tea | 53% | 31% | 16% |
Source: Datassential
Hot Dispensed Beverages: Usage Behavior
According to a December 2013 sample of research from Datassential’s Buzz Coffee & Tea Tracker, which tracks a sample of 12,000 consumers on their coffee and tea preferences, 45% of consumers’
daily beverage incidences away from home included brewed coffee. This compares to 41% for bottled water, 34% for juice and 33% for carbonated soft drinks (CSDs).
For more information on the Buzz Coffee & Tea Tracker, contact Mark DiDomenico, director of business development at Datassential, at 312-655-0597 or mark@datassential.com.
| Daily Beverage Incidence | |
| Tap water/ice water/glass of water | 55% |
| Brewed coffee/black coffee | 45% |
| Bottled water | 41% |
| Juice/juice drink | 34% |
| Regular carbonated soft drink | 33% |
| Milk | 32% |
| Iced tea | 26% |
| Diet carbonated soft drink | 24% |
| Hot tea | 18% |
| Beer | 13% |
| Punch/lemonade/limeade | 12% |
| Specialty coffee drink | 12% |
| Iced coffee | 11% |
| Wine | 11% |
| Sports drink | 10% |
| Hot chocolate | 9% |
| Smoothie | 8% |
| Energy drink | 8% |
| Milk shake | 7% |
| Ice-blended/frozen coffee/frappe | 7% |
| Spirits/cocktails/liquor | 7% |
| Slushie/granita | 3% |
Source: Datassential
Roast Preferences
Consumers favor a middle road when it comes to the type of brewed coffee they drink away from home, according to Datassential research. For coffee-roast types, consumers in the Buzz survey rated medium roasts as most appealing, followed by dark roasts. When it comes to country of origin for the beans, Colombia rated as most appealing, followed somewhat distantly by Brazil. And for coffee flavor, good old regular unflavored was tops in appeal. Women showed a stronger preference than men for flavored coffee, with vanilla, hazelnut, caramel and chocolate the most appealing flavors.
Question: Please rate on a 10-point scale the appeal of each of the following types of coffee roasts.
| Appeal | |
| Roast Type | Appeal (Percentage of top two scores) |
| Medium roast | 32% |
| Dark roast | 29% |
| French roast | 23% |
| Italian roast | 14% |
| Light roast | 14% |
| European roast | 14% |
| Blonde roast | 10% |
| City roast | 8% |
Source: Datassential
Customer in Focus
The temperature outside is a big indication of how well coffee sales will perform for the day, whether the beverage is cold or hot. Research by Management Science Associates (MSA) finds that an increase of 1 degree in temperature will generate one additional iced-coffee purchase per store. Meanwhile, hot-coffee sales drop sharply as the temperature grows past 65 degrees, especially in the lunch and evening day-parts.
Venue Appeal
In its Buzz survey, Datassential asked consumers to rate different venues on a 10-point scale, ranging from 1-3 as “not appealing” to 9-10 as “very appealing.” The most appealing venue? Coffeehouses, which 72% of consumers considered appealing or very appealing, and doughnut shops at 66%. The least appealing: a food truck.
C-stores, which potentially would score highest in providing convenience, ultimately had a very low perceived appeal among these consumers, with only 40% rating the channel as “appealing” or “very appealing.” Quick-service restaurants scored 48%.
| Venue | Not appealing (1-3) | Somewhat appealing (4-6) | Appealing (7-8) | Very Appealing (9-10) |
| Coffeehouse | 7% | 21% | 32% | 40% |
| Doughnut shop | 9% | 25% | 33% | 33% |
| Bakery café | 9% | 28% | 35% | 28% |
| Casual dining | 14% | 32% | 32% | 21% |
| Fast-casual | 16% | 35% | 30% | 19% |
| QSR | 20% | 35% | 27% | 18% |
| C-store | 24% | 36% | 25% | 15% |
| Workplace | 27% | 36% | 23% | 14% |
| Food truck/ stand | 38% | 39% | 15% | 7% |
Source: Datassential
Cross-Category Opportunity
According to research by Management Science Associates (MSA) that examined two years’ worth of total store and two months of transaction-level point-of-sale data at three midsize c-store chains, the following products were purchased most often with coffee during the breakfast day-part (5 to 10 a.m.):
1. Foodservice bakery
2. Premium cigarettes
3. Foodservice breakfast sandwich
4. Newspapers
5. Snack cakes/pastries/desserts
6. Foodservice lunch sandwich
7. Bottled water
8. Foodservice other cuisine
9. Fruit
10. RTD iced tea
During the midday, evening and late-night day-parts, premium cigarettes bumped bakery to become the top-purchased item included in a hot-coffee market basket.
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