Speedway’s Speedy Cafe Healthy Food Fast

Today there are more than 154,535 convenience stores in the United States.  That is three times the number of supermarkets, yet a shadow to the 620,807 restaurants in the United States. Today convenience stores serve 160 million people a day, with a combined $750 billion in annual sales and 2.5 million to 2.6 million employees.

Anthony Kenney, CEO of Speedway understands that to lure more millennials into stores, Speedway needed a healthier fresh food and that Speedway must compete for customers with legacy restaurants, grocery stores, current C-stores and new entrants including non-traditional points of fresh food distribution.

Note: Speedway's has over 2,730 stores with 33,000+ employees in 21 states east of the Mississippi River. Speedway sees 4 million customers a day and posted $19.7 billion in sales in 2015, according to parent company Marathon Petroleum Corp.

Kenny has refocused the  company too focus less on fuel and more on other things like foodservice.  Speedway has 's launched a new food-focused concept in a few dozen stores. The “Speedy Cafe” features a kiosk with fresh food that is fast, such as healthy hot dogs, which the current generation has pushed.

Fresh food fast is the key to growing grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food sales according to our own Grocerant Guru® and Kenny stated that the “Speedy Cafe business is built around time, they want to get in and get out,”.. “If we have them come into the store they are there an average of three minutes, so if you want to sell, you have to sell fast.”

Kenney continued we have a “whole new kind of customer in millennials”. Speedway has  formed its service model around baby boomers, now ages 51-69, who had simpler service desires, who make up just 17.7 percent of its customers today. Generation X, those 35 to 50, are 31.3 percent while millennials aged 18-34 are 42 percent.

“It's a different ball game with millennials, they all have smartphones and they’re all connected, which allows more engagement, we can connect with them through that mobile app," Kenney said. "It redefines how we think about marketing going forward."  Foodservice Solutions® team commends Kenny. 

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869