Are you a convenience-store retailer who has heard all the buzz about customers wanting better-for-you food offerings, invested and then got burned by low sales?
“Many operators and manufacturers across foodservice have gotten burned by putting better-for-you items on their menus, and it kind of makes us wonder: Is all of this talk from consumers about how they want to eat healthier all talk and no action?” asked Donna Hood Crecca, senior principal at CSP sister research arm Technomic, Chicago, speaking at CSP’s C-Store Foodservice Forum last week in Schaumburg, Illinois.
The biggest challenges in offering better-for-you items include the high costs of items and ingredients, Crecca said.
Then there are consumer perceptions, “like what do they think is healthy? What makes it healthy? Do they actually buy into the attributes?”
Other challenges are low consumer demand and pricing to the consumer, Crecca said. “How do we price it to move?” she asked?
Concern Growing
But consumer approaches to better-for-you are evolving, Crecca said, with 54% of consumers in a Technomic survey this year saying they are increasingly concerned about additives in the foods they consume and 53% saying they seek out nutritious foods that are good for them.
“Consumers are thinking about the way they eat in a different way, but they're very invested in it,” Crecca said. “They are focused on it. We’ve got a lot of consumers who are thinking about their meal planning in a way to incorporate health.
“They’re thinking about the additives in the foods that they’re buying and that they’re eating,” she added. “They are being proactive. They’re looking for nutritious food items. They’re looking for ingredients that they recognize as being better for them.”
Consumers also are looking for information, whether it be at the grocery store or when sourcing prepared foods and beverages from foodservice, Crecca said.
“They're more proactive, but their approach to health has changed,” Crecca said. “Today’s approach to health for many consumers is more about nourishment and it’s more about energizing. It’s less about denial; it’s more balanced. There’s room for indulgence.”
Food should make people happy, Crecca added, and it shouldn't be about denial.
“Diet is a dirty word today,” she said. “You don’t really hear that too much. It’s more about eating healthy as a part of your lifestyle. So more and more consumers are moving in this direction.”
Crecca added that there is a caveat: People who have dietary restrictions, such as having to limit their salt intake. Even for these people, however, “It doesn’t have to be this rigorous regimen that they go through. It’s just more of a more balanced approach.”
Crecca pointed out the changes in overall eating behaviors in a Technomic survey from 2025’s first quarter compared with 2022’s first quarter:
“You can see there’s that little bit of an uptick in the share that say that they were eating healthy and a little bit of a downward trend of those saying I eat unhealthy most of the time,” Crecca said. “So, this shift in the consumer mindset is actually changing the consumer needs state when they come into a foodservice environment.”
C-store consumer foodservice occasions are increasingly driven by a need for better-for-you options, driven by younger consumers, Crecca said.
The primary need state in recent c-store foodservice occasions is cravings, “which has been growing,” Crecca said. “They want to satisfy a craving, but one of the ones that’s really growing, and it’s interesting to see it grow in convenience stores, is ‘better for you.’”
“You can see for millennials, ‘need it healthy’ is up 3 points, ‘need it real’ up 1 point, ‘need it healthy’ for Gen Z up 4 points, need it real up 2 points,” she said. “So, that’s kind of who’s driving it and so it’s more part of their lifestyle. So, we need to start rethinking our approach to it because our channel, c-stores, ranks the lowest in terms of a place that's perceived to offer healthy food and beverages."
In 2025’s first quarter, 45% of fast-casual restaurants were perceived to offer healthy food and beverages, down from 48% in 2022’s first quarter, according to a Technomic survey.
Meanwhile, 24% of fast-food restaurants were perceived to offer healthy food and beverages, down from 25% in 2022.
At c-stores, there was an increase in the perception of offering healthy food and beverages: 22% in 2025’s first quarter, up from 18% in 2022’s first quarter.
C-store are “the only channel seeing an increase, so that’s good,” Crecca said. “We’re moving in the right direction.”
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