Consumer diets can be complex and hard to categorize. A customer watching their salt intake might also splurge on a dessert. The same customer who grabs a soda and hot dog might be interested in a protein-packed bar and a fruit salad, too.
"We know some days you may want cantaloupe and others you may be craving our Love's-branded Sour Gummi Worms, and we are here to satisfy those cravings," said Bryan Street, deli manager for Love's Travel Stops and Country Stores Inc., Oklahoma City. "We use a mix of data analytics, including consumer sales history, trends and targeted surveys to understand the preferred offerings. This allows us to strategically dedicate merchandising space, expand current offerings, pursue innovation opportunities and identify bundling opportunities to drive value for our customers."
Convenience stores are leaning into these complex diets and highlighting new offerings while keeping the classic snacks and meals they've long been known for available to customers.
The addition of healthy and better-for-you offerings is driven by new product availability and the evolving role of convenience stores, said Bobby Gibbs, a partner at consulting firm Oliver Wyman, New York.
"The first angle is just a lot of the CPG innovation we see today is around better-for-you products and healthier indulgence,” Gibbs said. “The convenience store is seeing some of that in the packaged foods that they're serving, which is a food trend more broadly. I think the second is you're seeing an expansion of the kinds of service offerings that are in convenience stores."
For 7-Eleven Inc., Irving, Texas, the shift to healthier foods is at least in part generational, said Deanna Hall, senior product director.
“Convenience stores are the primary shopping channel for Gen Z, and this generation is proving to be quite adventurous,” she said. She pointed to the roll out of a sweet-and-spicy Mangonada Donut with Tajin seasoning, which “truly feeds into the flavor and experimentation trend of Gen Z going after unique interpretations of classic favorites.”
Protein Packs aPunch
To many consumers, protein is seen as a healthy way to stay full longer and, perhaps, save a bit of money in these inflationary times.
“I think there's this general belief that, and I’m not a scientist, but what I mostly see is that folks feel that proteins have a higher satiety that come with the snack. And so baking protein in will make the snack more substantive,” said Gibbs.
The teams at Love's--as well as at RaceTrac, Atlanta, and EG America, Westborough, Massachusetts--all said high-protein hard-boiled eggs and meat and cheese snacks are top sellers. Meat and cheese snacks outsell snack packs with crackers, EG America also noted. The company also noted that specific products like Fairlife protein shakes, Barebells protein bars, Blue Diamond almonds and Wonderful pistachios were popular with customers.
"At Love's, we have seen more interest in items like corn dogs and chicken drummies in our hot snack category. Those options cost less than a full meal but provide protein and energy between meals,” said Street. "Customers may want to eat and spend less, so they are searching for protein-packed snacks to keep them full and fueled for their day."
These operator's findings are echoed in recent research. The International Food Information Council (IFIC) found 67% of consumers tried to increase their protein intake in 2023, and sales of food with 25 grams or more of protein per serving jumped nearly 8% between July 2023 and June 2024, according to research from NielsenIQ.
Healthly Foods Are Still aNiche
Consumers are also looking for freshly made foods and ways to control their portions.
"Another trend is resealable packaging, which lets our guests buy larger-sized food items and snacks and then portion it into smaller quantities for later," said John Lutz, senior director of category management,and Chris Russell, foodservice operations manager, both with EG America. "This is ideal for our guests who are traveling or taking road trips."
In the open-air cooler at Love, watermelon, salads and wraps are some of the best sellers in the better-for-you category, Street said. Healthy eaters at RaceTrac choose yogurt parfaits, and cut fruit and vegetables, said Amanda Miller, RaceTrac category manager. At 7-Eleven, new chilled products include a cobb salad and an improved chicken Caesar salad made with white meat chicken and Whisps parmesan cheese crisps.
Of course, these options supplement but don't replace the indulgent snacks commonly found at convenience stores. And not all healthy-eating initiatives at convenience stores have been a success. For example, the autonomous robotic juice kiosks Love's rolled out in partnership with Jamba Juice a few years back are no longer in operation.
"Our fresh foods category is a niche category," said Miller.
"It's important to balance the assortment to cater to both, whether a guest wants a healthy snack of apple slices or a sweet treat like one of our desserts. We strive to have a wide assortment within our cooler to make sure that we're able to provide products within as many subcategories as we can to satisfy that guests' needs."