With foodservice on the rise and consumers increasingly seeking value from their purchases, the gap between convenience stores and quick-service restaurants (QSRs) is closing each year. Customers are looking to c-stores for restaurant quality food at a lower price than their QSR counterparts, and retailers are delivering.
Younger consumers are leading the charge, which signals continued momentum for c-store foodservice in the coming years.
Datassential’s Q3 C-Store Quarterly Tracker found that roughly 25% of consumers visited a convenience store in-person for a meal away from home at least once in the past month. Of those 25%, Gen Z had the highest visitation rate at 31%. This was followed by Millennials (30%), Gen X (29%) and finally Baby Boomers, which came in at a shockingly low 11%.
The report also found that men are purchasing c-store food at a higher rate (28%) than women (23%).
Regionally, the South is leading foodservice visits with 28% of southern consumers reporting that they had purchased food from a c-store in the past month. Following the South is the Northeast (26%), the Midwest (25%) and the West (21%).
Low income consumers are visiting the most (27%), once again demonstrating the importance of the value proposition in 2026. Twenty-five percent of medium income consumers reported buying food from a c-store at least once in the past month, followed by high income consumers at 24%.
Datassential’s C-Store Quarterly Tracker uses data from 1,518 “gen pop” U.S. consumers and 445 foodservice decision makers, 17 of whom operate convenience stores.
The report analyzes a variety of key metrics like the perception of c-store prices, top challenges for retailers, profitability strategies and more.
Click HERE to download the full report.
