While many convenience stores’ offerings have expanded far beyond hot dogs and sausages, retailers still describe the roller grill as integral to the success of their foodservice programs and store-wide sales.
Cenex Zip Trip uses the roller grill “as a hook to sell beverages and other snacks at our stores,” explained Jon Fleck, merchandising manager for the chain, which has 38 stores in seven different states. Twenty-five of the stores have roller grills.
“In roughly 14 of our stores, this foodservice option is in addition to nationally branded offerings, including Hunt Brothers Pizza and A&W,” Fleck noted.
Early last year, Zip Trip stores dropped the retail price on roller grill items, despite increasing protein costs, to sell more products throughout the stores.
“In most of the markets we serve, we saw a 45% increase in the number of units sold, with a much smaller increase in dollar sales,” Fleck said. “But we feel it helped increase sales of other complementary items.”
He noted he expected to see “a steady increase” in roller grill unit sales throughout this year.
According to Philip Santini, senior director of advertising and foodservice at Rutter’s, which has 88 convenience stores in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland, the roller grill is “a very large part” of the company’s extensive foodservice program.
“The hot dog has always been the star of the show in this category because it’s hot and readily available for on-the-go eating,” Santini explained.
The roller grill offers “a lot of opportunity for expansion of flavor profiles,” and Santini noted that Rutter’s also features a number of different sausage varieties, roller bites and tornados and is looking to continue to expand its offerings.
“We’re seeing a lot of chicken items and more flavors of hot dogs and sausages, and we’re looking at all of those,” he added. Santini expects roller grill sales to be consistent throughout 2025. He is planning to promote the products as snacks and appetizers as well as meal solutions at Rutter’s.
Hispanic Food Success
Burritos and other Hispanic foods are boosting foodservice sales for convenience store retailers with their versatility and mainstream appeal.
Since becoming a proprietary concept in the late 1990s, Kwik & Fresh Mexi has evolved into “a big part of the deli program” in the select Kwik Stop Convenience Stores where it is offered, noted M. David May, director of food services. Five of the company’s 27 stores in Nebraska and Colorado currently feature Kwik & Fresh Mexi, and it’s soon to be six when store No. 28 is completed.
To say the concept is integral to the foodservice programs in those stores is an understatement, according to May.
“In these stores, Kwik & Fresh Mexi represents about 20% of overall deli sales across the day,” May explained. “What’s even nicer is that our gross profit margin from this concept is 65%.”
May stated that burritos and tacos lend themselves to a wide range of applications that do not require bringing in new ingredient SKUs. For the five-layer burrito, a former limited-time offer and now permanent menu item, for example, he only had to bring in Spanish rice.
“We quickly found out that the Spanish rice itself sells like gangbusters,” he said. “Now we sell it by itself in small, medium and large containers.”
In early 2024, Onvo convenience stores, which has 40 locations in Pennsylvania and New York, introduced a new program called Craveritos. Its signature toasted burritos can be filled with anything from traditional Southwest- and Mexican-inspired ingredients to American fusion offerings such as barbecued pulled pork, said Harman Aulakh, vice president of marketing for Onvo.
“Also on the menu are breakfast tacos and bowls that utilize the burrito fillings minus the tortilla,” he continued.
