Retailers looking to capitalize on the lunch daypart should include a healthy serving of savings.
Retailers—and vendors—say low-priced items are a big trend they see in consumer behavior in mid-2023. Lunch is the second most frequented daypart in c-stores, with 25% of consumers saying it’s the prepared food they buy most at c-stores, second to snacks at 36%, according to 2023’s first-quarter C-Store Consumer Market Brief from CSP sister research firm Technomic.
“Consumers are more inclined to pick an item based on price than they ever have been,” said Savannah Johnson, manager, category food, for Knoxville, Tennessee-based Pilot Co., which has more than 640 travel centers.
“Everybody’s talking price,” she said, and consumers are increasingly making purchase decisions based on a product’s cost. “They’re saying, ‘Hey, it’s not necessarily about the brand anymore. It’s about the cost of the item.”
The caveat is consumers don’t want quality to suffer with price, Johnson said.
Some new and returning Pilot foodservice items play to this double-edged demand.
“Customers want to feel good about what they’re buying.”
The Cheesy Bread Stick, for example, rolling out in June for about $2.49 is “a great incremental in-house offering,” Johnson said.
The breadsticks start with a sheet of dough, which is topped with cheese sauce. Customers choose their toppings, which an employee adds. Offerings include pepperoni, sausage crumbles and vegetables like onions, green peppers and olives.
The breadsticks were the answer to Pilot’s question of what new product could expand its fresh, prepared-in-house pizza category, Johnson said.
Hunt Brothers Pizza has noticed the success of nostalgic and comfort foods, said Dee Cleveland, director of marketing. Cleveland says a study from the National Restaurant Association, in partnership with the American Culinary Federation and Technomic, shows nostalgic and comfort foods are two of 2023’s top trending flavor genres.
Nashville, Tennessee-based Hunt Brothers is experiencing continued success with specialty pizzas such as the Lotsa Meat Pizza, the Loaded Pizza and Breakfast Pizza, which offer familiar spins on traditional flavors, she said.
In addition, its limited-time-offer pizzas come in unique but recognizable flavor combinations unexpected in a pizza format, she added, noting Buffalo Chicken Pizza and the Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza. C-store partner feedback indicates meat-forward items are performing extremely well and c-stores “thrive when they provide hot food options, no matter the daypart,” Cleveland said.
Seeking More Flavor
At the Maverik location in Magna, Utah, Store Director Bree Ballard said customers seek items with more flavor that they can grab quickly and get a good value on.
Food offerings in her store, which opened in January, fitting that bill include pork salads, chicken quesadillas, corn dogs and nachos, Ballard said. Maverik, based in Salt Lake City, has more than 400 stores.
“People want affordable, a good price point and more of—not quite fast food—a home-cooked-meal-type food,” she said. “It’s good, quick, easy. You don’t have to cook it. We make it for you.”
These strategies and offerings reflect what c-store consumers seek and expect, which has changed to higher-quality ingredients and products at a solid value, said Steve Velgersdyk, director of convenience-store sales at Wayzata, Minnesota-based Cargill.
Velgersdyk said Cargill data indicates demographics and flavor preferences continue to change, making the c-store consumer challenging because many times even younger ones seek a new product that is nonetheless familiar. This conundrum is solved by incorporating new global flavors, particularly younger customers’ flavor preferences, into familiar foods.
“New product innovation can have many different purposes: To drive dollar sales or to create social media buzz, to increase traffic and drive consumer loyalty, to surprise and delight their consumer.”
One example of this strategy is using the popular chorizo flavor to create a Southwest macaroni and cheese for a client, he said. “It’s bringing a Hispanic flavor into a familiar format of mac and cheese, but then they’re using that in other ways as well: as a breakfast pizza and in a p.m. daypart as a burrito,” he said.
Cargill will blend its own consumer research with its customers’ demographic information when developing new products.
“New product innovation can have many different purposes: To drive dollar sales or to create social media buzz, to increase traffic and drive consumer loyalty, to surprise and delight their consumer,” Velgersdyk said.
Another trend is creativity around pizza, Velgersdyk said.
“It’s been a staple forever, but innovation in pizza is becoming even more popular. Look at some of the things that Casey’s is doing. Those convenience stores not yet participating in pizza are certainly missing out on a big chunk of business,” he said.
Adding trending flavors—like Korean barbecue sauce—could be a good enhancement for pizza, Velgersdyk said.
“Curry coconut and curry chicken are among flavors that gain in popularity, and so how do you bring those into a familiar format like pizza,” he said.
Another trend in lunch, and later, is the growth in customers buying take-home meals. These can be premade meals the c-store buys directly from a supplier or makes itself, Velgersdyk said.
Offerings as complicated as meatloaf and mashed potatoes “are a smart approach to the consumer who’s returning to being constantly on the go,” he said. “And many people are, after years of cooking for themselves and their house, looking for meals outside of the home or things that are easy.”
Tenders Trending
Another take-home meal go-to is fried chicken, and at branded fried-chicken provider Krispy Krunchy Foods LLC, Alexandria, Louisiana, Chief Operating Officer Dan Shapiro sees movement toward the tender and away from bone-in pieces.
“Bone-in is still big, and it’s somewhat driven by demographics, but younger people seem to want more tenders,” Shapiro said. “Blue collar, for the most part, still likes bone-in, legs, thighs.”
Shapiro said the West Coast consumes more tenders. “Is it that people think that it’s white meat and it’s [healthier]? Maybe. Tenders are easier to eat, especially if you’re eating them in a car, right?”
Awareness of what customers want is also a top priority at Kum & Go, Des Moines, Iowa. There they constantly evaluate this dynamic, which starts with healthy options, variety and unusual finds.
“Customers want to feel good about what they’re buying,” said Jac Moskalik, vice president of food innovation. “In all of that survey work we do with our insights and analytics team, we develop our program. We listen to our customers.”
Resulting offerings include the company’s made-to-order fresh-food menu, launched in fall 2021 and now entering its fourth market, Colorado Springs, Colorado; the first three are Little Rock, Arkansas; Omaha, Nebraska; and Des Moines, Iowa. The menu includes premium ingredients—brown rice and spinach bowl bases are new—and fresh toppings and sauces.
“Mexican is the No. 1 ethnic cuisine and continues to grow in consumption.”
Natasha Ratzlaff, director of category management, food, said Kum & Go also considers the times and way people eat. Some have three meals daily while others have six small meals. Consequently, Kum & Go, which has about 400 c-stores, is adjusting and “adding to our variety to cater to those differing eating styles,” she said. “That’s why we’re thinking about not just breakfast, lunch, dinner, but we’re thinking about breakfast, morning, the morning snacking occasion, the afternoon, the evening commute, and then even after dinner.”
While Kum & Go is expanding its healthy offerings, Trish Transue, food manager at Top Star Express, Emmaus, Pennsylvania, said her experience has been that comfort food reigns supreme. “You hear everybody wants clean and healthy and ingredient transparency, but then you bring those things in, and they don’t really move.”
Burgers, wings, mozzarella sticks and chicken tenders are what drive her sales, Transue said, and recent rollouts at the chain’s approximately 30 stores include a hot roast beef and cheddar on a pretzel bun. “People are loving it,” she said. “This will be the second year I do quesadillas as an LTO during May to coincide with Cinco de Mayo. They do really well.”
The “biggest shocker,” Transue said, “was a Monte Cristo sandwich (pictured) that just took off during breakfast and lunch.”
Transue said sometimes what’s called a trend is really just an expansion of sauces. “As you start bringing in different sauces, you just open doors,” she said.
Customers like control, variety and choice, and sauces enable retailers to take a product like a simple chicken wing and expand its appeal by “putting 10 different sauces out there that you can toss that in,” she said.
Sandie Deas Ray, vice president of marketing and data analytics, Ruiz Foods, Dinuba, California, said that Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Tex-Mex and Southern cuisines are ubiquitous and top considerations for lunch.
Citing May 2022 Kantar Profiles/Mintel data, she adds, “Mexican is the No. 1 ethnic cuisine and continues to grow in consumption.”
Restaurants have helped spur this trend.
“Think Chipotle, Panda Express and even Popeyes with its Southern fried recipe chicken,” she said. “The younger generation is more diverse than previous generations, and they grew up eating different foods. In addition, consumers are inclined to try new things.”