7-Eleven & Speedway

  1. Data & Insights

Reoccurring Customer Visits Drive Incremental Revenue Faster

  The growth algorithm across all sectors of food retail—restaurants, convenience stores, and grocery service delis—has converged on one immutable truth according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®:  frequency of visits is the most reliable driver of incremental revenue and long-term profitability. What was once a convenience-store insight is now […]
5 min read
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  1. Department: Beverage

Beer, Basket Building: How 7-Eleven and Budweiser Turn a Holiday into High-Margin Momentum

  Let’s get straight to it: beer isn’t just a beverage—it’s a traffic driver, a margin enhancer, and when merchandised correctly, a meal solution multiplier according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. The latest limited-time promotion from 7-Eleven proves exactly that, leveraging National Beer Day (April 7) as a strategic […]
4 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

AI becomes central to M&S technology transformation: these are the biggest retail stories from March

March is done and dusted, April is up and running, so let’s kick back and reflect on another eventful month for the retail technology space. Here’s your briefing on the most important stories from March, including VenHub Global, RTS 2026, Zalando, Nomagic, Co-op, VoCoVo, StrongPoint, Iceland Foods, AiFi, Boxbar Tech, Groupe Dynamite, and Manhattan Associates. […]
7 min read
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  1. Department & Category

Walk-In Restaurants, Drive-Thru Dominance, Grocery Prepared Foods, and the Rise of the Meal Platform Economy

  The U.S. food industry has evolved into a nearly $4 trillion annual consumer marketplace, spanning restaurants, grocery retail, convenience stores, digital ordering platforms, and institutional foodservice. Now, wonder no longer what Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® thinks about the ‘State of the Foodservice Industry’: Despite its size and complexity, […]
5 min read
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  1. Department & Category

Portability, Platforms, and Prepared Foods: Where Foodservice Success Is Being Redefined

  The food industry in 2025–2026 is undergoing one of the largest structural shifts in decades. Consumers are eating differently, ordering differently, and discovering meals through digital platforms, convenience retail, and ready-to-eat formats. The biggest change is simple but powerful: Foodservice success today is driven by portability. Portable meals—food that can be ordered digitally, picked […]
5 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Autonomous market goes live at Co-op Live arena powered by AiFi and Boxbar Tech solutions

Co-op Live, an indoor arena in Manchester, England, sited in the Etihad Campus next to the City of Manchester Stadium, has launched an autonomous market powered by AiFi’s spatial intelligence platform and Boxbar Tech’s self-serve beverage technology. Built in partnership with Oak View Group (OVG), this has been engineered to maximise speed, throughput and convenience […]
3 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

7-Eleven’s Big Bite in the Age of Time-Starved Consumers: Legacy Icon or Launchpad for Fresh Fast?

  No brand in the convenience ecosystem has historically leveraged a proprietary food item like the 7-Eleven with its Big Bite. The roller grill once symbolized immediacy, affordability, and accessibility. It was hot, ready, and under $2—an edible billboard for frictionless consumption. From the Grocerant Guru® perspective, the question is no longer whether the Big […]
4 min read
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  1. Department & Category

From Corner Grocery to National Chain: A Historical Overview of Convenience Retail

The modern convenience store (C-store) traces its roots to the early 20th century’s neighborhood corner shops and service stations — simple places where travelers and local residents could buy milk or a snack without entering a full grocery. Over the decades, these mom-and-pop operations dotted towns and cities, creating community hubs with an intensely local […]
5 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Value Is the New Premium: How Strategic Pricing Is Rebuilding Food Brand Equity

  For more than a decade, food and beverage brands leaned heavily on premiumization, pack-size shrink, and convenience narratives to defend margins. Then inflation fatigue collided with shopper skepticism. Today, a quiet but decisive pivot is underway: manufacturers and operators are re-engineering value as a branding strategy according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, […]
4 min read
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  1. Department: Food

C Stores Are Becoming America’s Fastest Growing Restaurant Competitors—And the Data Proves It

  For decades, convenience stores were defined by fuel, fountain drinks, and grab‑and‑go snacks. Today, they are redefining the competitive landscape for quick‑service restaurants (QSR) and fast‑casual chains by becoming full‑scale food destinations according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. With fresh prepared foods, mix‑and‑match meal components, and aggressive value […]
5 min read
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  1. Department & Category

7 Eleven Super Bowl Sunday Super Customer Focused

  This is Food‑Fact‑Filled, Data‑Driven Look at How the World’s Largest Convenience Retailer Wins Big With Consumers by Steven Johnson’s the Grocerant Guru’s team at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Super Bowl Sunday and National Pizza Day sit back‑to‑back on the calendar, and 7‑Eleven is treating both like the food‑centric cultural holidays they’ve become. With […]
4 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Longtime 7-Eleven CEO Retires as Retailer Preps for Ambitious North America Growth

As 7-Eleven, Inc (SEI) prepares for significant expansion of its store fleet in North America, the retailer also is on the lookout for a new CEO. Joe DePinto, who has served as CEO for more than two decades, will retire at the end of 2025. Stanley Reynolds and Douglas Rosencrans, currently President and EVP/COO of […]
2 min read
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  1. Department & Category

From the Grocerant Guru® Stage, Why 2025 Was the Tipping Point: Convenience Stores Became True Meal Destinations

  When I stood on stage at the Convenience Store News Exchange in Denver last May, I told this audience something that felt provocative to some and obvious to others: the future of food is not about channels — it is about occasions. Grubhub’s 2025 Delivered Report now validates that assertion with hard data and […]
4 min read
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  1. Department: Beverage

2025 Coffee-Chain Competition Through the Eyes of the Grocerant Guru®

  How convenience stores, QSRs, and mid-size chains are reshaping morning coffee — and why Starbucks is no longer the only powerhouse on the block. As the Grocerant Guru®, I’ve long said that the battle for the “morning meal” is actually the battle for beverage share — and in 2025, coffee is the center of […]
5 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Fast Food Discontinuity and the Millennial Quest for Discovery

  For decades, America’s fast-food sector thrived by doing what it had always done—replicating, repeating, and rarely reinventing. But in 2025, that legacy playbook no longer aligns with how consumers actually eat, shop, and explore. Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson puts it plainly: “Doing things the way they’ve always been done is no longer […]
5 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Eating for Health: A Historical Look at How America Shops, Eats, and Redefines Food Convenience

  For more than a century, “eating for health” has evolved from a luxury of the elite to a mainstream expectation shaped by consumer demand, technology, and retail innovation. From the first self-service supermarkets in the 1930s to today’s frictionless, omnichannel food ecosystem, one constant has persisted: shoppers want food that is better for them, […]
5 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

7-Eleven Launches State-Specific Alcohol Cashback Program Nationwide

7-Eleven has partnered with Swiftly to bring an alcohol cashback solution to more than 10,500 convenience stores across the country. The Swiftly retail media and shopper engagement platform delivers state-specific, real-time offers on beer, wine and spirits directly to consumers’ mobile devices. Shoppers that purchase qualifying products and then scan their loyalty card or enter […]
< 1 min read
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  1. Channel: Restaurants

Convenience Stores Turn Restaurant Meal Deals into a Magnet for Customer Migration

  How C-Stores Are Winning the “Restaurant Quality Ready-2-Eat” Battle. For over a decade, convenience stores have quietly reinvented themselves from fuel-forward pit stops into fresh food destinations—and the data now confirms it: 68% of consumers say C-store ready-2-eat meals are “as good as” or “better than” quick-service restaurant food, according to NACS shopper insights. […]
4 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Kroger’s Bulk Blind Spot: Why Overpricing and Outdated Thinking Are Driving Shoppers Away

  Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® has plenty of opinions, this article is one of them!  When 62% of U.S. households are one or two people, selling 10 pounds of pork chops is a business model built for yesterday. Fast food and modern grocers are eating Kroger’s lunch—literally. For decades, […]
5 min read
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  1. Channel: Restaurants

Wendy’s: When “Fresh” Isn’t Enough — Why Yesterday’s Fast-Food Model Is Cracking

  Wendy’s was once the chain that made “fresh, never frozen” a national rallying cry. Today, the brand that gave us square burgers and sass is navigating one of the toughest stretches in its history — closing stores, trimming menus, and fighting to stay relevant in a quick-service world where convenience stores, not burger joints, […]
4 min read
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  1. Channel: Convenience

233 Suppliers Move to Next Phase of 7-Eleven’s Brands With Heart Selection Process

Two hundred and thirty-three emerging brands have advanced to the next stage of evaluation in 7-Eleven’s annual Brands with Heart program, an increase of 50 compared to last year, which reflects the continued innovation within the convenience retail space. Those selected are invited to send samples to the convenience store chain for review by its […]
2 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Consumers Tighten Food Budgets: Who Will Win the “Share of Stomach” Battle This Holiday Season?

  As 2025 winds toward the holiday season, U.S. consumers are rethinking every dollar they spend on food. With grocery prices up 3.8% year-over-year, restaurant menu inflation hovering near 5.4%, and C-store traffic surging but check averages flat, the competition for the consumer’s “Share of Stomach” has never been fiercer according to Steven Johnson Grocerant […]
4 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Why Restaurants Must Migrate to a Grocerant Template—Before It’s Too Late

  Consumers Aren’t Dining Out Less—They’re Dining Differently Relentlessly high menu prices and macroeconomic pressures have created a turning point for restaurants. Inflation isn’t just raising food costs—it’s redefining how, where, and why Americans eat. A new YouGov report (October 2025) paints a stark picture: ·       37% of Americans are eating out less frequently than […]
5 min read
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  1. Department & Category

SunStop Launches Meal Deals Tapping the Fast-Growing Grocerant Trend

  SunStop, the convenience store subsidiary of Southwest Georgia Oil Co. (SWGA Oil), is stepping confidently into the family dinner market with its new “Feed the Fam — $5 After 5” campaign — a deal that proves the modern C-store is no longer just a pit stop; it’s a mealtime destination. The promotion, available Monday […]
5 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

The Power of Menu Branding: Why Expanding Beyond Four Walls Wins Consumers

  Food isn’t just eaten—it’s remembered, repeated, and re-purchased. In today’s hyper-competitive food and beverage landscape, restaurants and convenience stores alike are discovering that their menus aren’t just lists of items. They’re brand platforms. When signature products make the leap into grocery aisles, c-store coolers, or even home pantries, they create loyalty, visibility, and entirely […]
5 min read
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  1. Channel: Convenience

How 7-Eleven’s Brands with Heart Brings Purpose-Driven Products to the Shelf

Since 2019, RangeMe has proudly partnered with 7-Eleven on its Brands with Heart program, an annual initiative dedicated to discovering and showcasing emerging, purpose-driven brands across 7-Eleven, Speedway, and Stripes convenience stores. This year’s submissions process is currently underway and runs through October 13, 2025. McCarty Selected brands gain a path into a new retail […]
3 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Mix & Match Meal Components: What’s Really for Dinner?

  The way Americans plan and consume dinner has undergone a seismic shift. Meal planning no longer begins in the kitchen, but often in the aisle of a grocery store, the drive-thru lane, or on a smartphone app. According to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant ScoreCards, 83.2% of U.S. consumers do not know what they’ll have for […]
5 min read
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  1. Department & Category

Food Marketing Football Game Day Spreads: Gambling on Snacks and Sports

  Football isn’t just America’s favorite pastime anymore—it’s become the centerpiece of a high-stakes marketing strategy where food, fandom, and gambling collide. The big screen in the living room, the sizzling of wings in the kitchen, and the tap of a sportsbook app on a smartphone—it’s all part of a new cultural mashup. What used […]
5 min read
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  1. Channel: Restaurants

What Other Chain Restaurants Will C-stores Companies Consider Buying?

  The convenience-store (C-store) industry is undergoing a strategic reinvention. With RaceTrac’s announced purchase of Potbelly for roughly $566 million, the once-clear boundary between quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and C-stores is blurring fast according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Acquisitions are now a front-row play for C-store operators that want […]
5 min read
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Editor’s Choice

  1. Trends & External Forces
  2. Shopper & Customer
  3. Technology & Innovation
  4. Trends & External Forces
  5. Associates & Employees
  6. Merchandising
  7. Stores & Formats

Walmart to Expand Digital Shelf Labels Chainwide

Walmart will deploy digital shelf labels (DSLs) chainwide this year, doubling the approximately 2,300 U.S. locations currently using the technology (Walmart U.S. operates more than 4,600 stores). With more than 120,000 items in a typical Walmart store, managing price changes manually requires significant associate hours. Additionally, these DSLs are equipped with LED lights that make […]
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