By: Chuck Ulie | July 23, 2024

‘Breakfast is going to continue to be important forever. It’s the most convenient time of day for people to utilize convenience stores from a habitual standpoint’

Experts long have been telling people not to skip breakfast because it’s the most important meal of the day.

The same advice can be given to convenience-store retailers regarding this morning meal, which can help get sales going early and serve as a gateway to foodservice in subsequent dayparts.

“We’re seeing more and more workers heading back to the office, and morning traffic is increasing in our stores,” said David Strachan, senior vice president of fresh foods at Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven, which has nearly 13,000 stores. “That means they’re on the road in the morning, and we want to be their first choice for convenience at every daypart.”

Part of being a customer’s first choice is keeping offerings fresh and trending, such as the chain’s protein-packed breakfast items to maintain one’s energy level. This includes 7-Eleven’s breakfast burritos that launched in January.

  • 7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.

While historically new products, both limited-time offers and permanent menu additions, are driven by holidays, seasonality or partnerships, many new additions today are tied to the morning daypart, Strachan said.

“There’s the recent burrito launch, and in September [2023] we introduced the French Toast Breakfast Sandwich that is the perfect balance of sweet and savory to jump-start your day,” Strachan said.

Power of Pizza

In addition to more traditional items, retailers shouldn’t forget about the rising popularity of pizza for breakfast, said Richard Poye, retail advisor and chief insight officer at Food Trends Think Tank, Nashville.

“I’m seeing more and more brands get into pizza, and you’re seeing those brands are also beginning to take advantage of the pizza offered during breakfast,” Poye said.

It wasn’t very long ago, around 2016 when Poye was working at a c-store chain, that the market was not yet ready for breakfast, he said.

Now, however, the tide has turned and more convenience-store players are getting into the pizza business, he said. And with breakfast often the busiest daypart, retailers are using pizza as a draw.

36% — Amount of respondents who strongly agree customers want to be able to order breakfast items outside of normal breakfast hours, according to Technomic

Regardless of if it’s pizza or more traditional fare, breakfast is something that cannot be ignored, said Farley Kaiser, senior director of culinary innovation at McLane Fresh, Temple, Texas.

“Breakfast is going to continue to be important forever,” she said. “It’s the most convenient time of day for people to utilize convenience stores from a habitual standpoint. And I mean that from the fact of I have fallen in love with my corner c-store’s coffee offer, and I love going there for that.”

Kaiser said she feels she’s treating herself with a coffee, “and I’m going to grab something else while I’m at it, a snack of some sort, or a program or an LTO. So, I think breakfast is going to continue to drive sales within the c-store space forever, really.”

Breakfast Daypart Grows

Data from CSP sister research arm Technomic sheds light on the breakfast-strategy mindset today. In its report Expectations for Away-From-Home Breakfast in 2024, Technomic reports that 36% of respondents strongly agree that customers want to be able to order breakfast items outside of normal breakfast hours. Another 48% somewhat agreed. The base was 462 operators, including 227 restaurant and 235 “beyond restaurant” operators.

If retailers sell pizza during breakfast, Poye said, they must be ready with non-breakfast pizza as well.

“They’re eating pepperoni, sausage and other kind of pizzas,” he said.

In addition to pizza, Poye said bigger sandwiches and portions are trending, particularly in stores that cater more to blue-collar customers in physically demanding jobs, like construction workers.

“How are we going to compete against McDonald’s? It’s not just putting a few breakfast sandwiches on the front counter.”

“Double patty, double protein, some bigger, heartier meals,” he said. “They’re getting really high-calorie meals because they’re needing that for the energy for the work throughout the day.”

In addition, Poye is seeing an increase in spicier offerings, particularly on chicken.

A decade or so ago a spicy chicken sandwich, for example, would be considered a lunch or evening meal. Today, however, “having a Buffalo chicken at breakfast is not uncommon,” he said.

The reason for this, Poye said, is more young people today have grown up with spicier foods—and it’s continuing into adulthood.

In addition, he said, consumers today expect limited-time offers to be really flavorful, not necessarily spicy but offering interesting flavor combinations—“things that are going to differentiate from what you would taste in a regular offer. This puts pressure on the regular offers to continuously improve on flavor, maybe spice but other flavors so that they’re there.”

Huddling With Huddle House

Lee’s Summit, Missouri-based Temp-Stop, meanwhile, is upping its breakfast game by franchising two Atlanta-based Huddle House restaurants, which offer all-day breakfast and more, said Terry Green, who co-founded the 12-location Temp-Stop with his brother Tim.

Temp-Stop sells breakfast fare (pictured top) including sandwiches and pizza, plus Champs Chicken, a turnkey chicken program from PFSbrands, Holts Summit, Missouri. It also sells its own breakfast sandwiches, burritos and bowls in four locations.

Earlier this year, however, Temp-Stop signed a multi-unit development agreement, marking a significant expansion for the restaurant chain in Missouri, according to Huddle House, which has about 300 restaurants open or being developed.

The first Huddle House in this partnership is expected to open in October in Sedalia, Missouri, in a Temp-Stop truck stop. The second will be attached to one of its convenience stores in Lake Lotawana, Missouri, “which has a lot of bars and restaurants around it but nothing for breakfast and lunch,” Green said.

“I’m seeing more and more brands get into pizza, and you’re seeing those brands are also beginning to take advantage of the pizza offered during breakfast.”

He adds that the Huddle House menu is similar to IHOP’s but that its physical design echoes the diner style of Waffle House. One Huddle House breakfast offering is the Smokehouse Platter, which includes applewood smoked bacon, country or turkey sausage and three eggs cooked to order.

“That’s the goal: We’re trying to go after that breakfast and lunch traffic,” Green said.

Image is particularly important when developing foodservice at a convenience store, said Green, noting the stiff competition from quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and the need to create a “destination food image,” which many c-stores have not yet done.

The fast-food customer is picky, he said, and makes decisions based on more than the quality of food. A foodservice program “has to have its own image, away from the gasoline image,” he said.

“About every quarter we’re trying to throw [something] out there to see if customers like it. Can it become a staple item or is it just a temporary offer?”

In his stores, Green said they’re always experimenting with foodservice offers outside of the Champ’s Chicken menu.

“About every quarter we’re trying to throw [something] out there to see if customers like it. Can it become a staple item or is it just a temporary offer?” he said.

But in its more populated areas, suburbs, where Temp-Stop has locations, Green said the increased competition from QSRs and sit-down restaurants on every corner has led to little success with foodservice. It’s “a little tough to get any traction for a convenience store just offering some food items,” he said. “How are we going to compete against McDonald’s? It’s not just putting a few breakfast sandwiches on the front counter.”

However, Temp-Stop’s Champs Chicken locations are in rural areas, which include truck stops, and “do really well in food because you don’t have the competition around you,” he said.

Compete Via Customization

One way to better compete in breakfast is via customization, said Ryan Malkowski, senior director of foodservice and corporate marketing at Core-Mark, Westlake, Texas.

“Whether it’s a burrito, a breakfast sandwich or a bowl, we have alternatives that can create that great-tasting breakfast option,” Malkowski said. “And it can be totally customizable with the options of sauces and salsas and different things that make that breakfast go from a traditional offering to something reaching into different types of alternatives for someone buying breakfast on a day-in and day-out basis from a convenience store.”

“Whether it’s a burrito, a breakfast sandwich or a bowl, we have alternatives that can create that great-tasting breakfast option.”

A key to a successful breakfast program, regardless of format, is “to lean in on protein,” Malkowski said. “People want that ‘satisfication’ of that meal, whether it be an egg protein, a cheese protein, certainly a meat protein to get them going for their day. Breakfast can be so many different things to whomever is looking for what they want when they want it.”

Strachan of 7-Eleven said morning commutes can be trying, which is why the c-store giant aims to be “a bright spot on that journey,” aiming to surprise and delight customers “with consistent quality and new tastes, but always with convenience and quality as key differentiators.

“Foundational offerings such as doughnuts, muffins and pastries are extremely important,” he added. “However, held-hot breakfast offerings are now table stakes to growing a.m. trips.”

Source: CSP