Convenience store

Today on Convenience Weekly, Murphy USA invests in robotic restaurants, a lesson from Casey's earnings report, THC drinks get a reprieve for a month, and on the list, football sponsorships.

Welcome to Convenience Weekly, the podcast where each week I catch you up on the convenience store industry news of the week and catch you up on opinions and interviews to help us understand what's happening in the industry and where it's headed next.

I'm Steve Holtz, a 25-year veteran of C-Store journalism.

If you like Convenience Weekly, please let us know.

Hit that follow button, post a comment, whatever you're comfortable with.

The cornerstone of the partnership is the chain's commitment to its annual Operation Give Thanks campaign.

Held each November, the platform raises funds to support veterans and military families The partnership with the Buffalo Bills expands the impact of the fundraising campaign through enhanced awareness efforts, fan participation opportunities, and community-focused events.

College football is getting its due from C-Store chains as well.

And our mission for this deep dive is to uncover exactly how the classic American diner and the mid-century lunch counter basically vanished from our towns.

And more importantly, how the modern convenience store, the C-Store, is currently pulling off one of the most lucrative, brilliant, and stealthy pivots in modern food service history to take their place.

The story buried in these sources is just it's much larger than a debate over where you buy a turkey sandwich.

You know, we are looking at a comprehensive story about the changing American workforce, the brutal realities of commercial real estate and an absolute revolution in retail economics.

It just digitized its menu and changed its address to the gas station corner.

Exactly.

So to understand the sheer scale of the convenience store's current takeover, we have to understand the empire they're replacing.

We have to go back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries to look at the birth of the lunch counter.

And on the list, retail media networks.

Welcome to Convenience Weekly, the podcast where each week I catch you up on the convenience store industry news of the week and bring you opinions and interviews to help us understand what's happening in the industry and where it's headed next.

I'm Steve Holtz, a 25-year veteran of C-Store journalism.

If you like Convenience Weekly, let us know.

Hit that follow button, post a comment, whatever you're comfortable with.

Wow.

Total company merchandise sales were up 4.1%, and total net earnings grew a healthy 6% to reach $832 million.

The scoop of the week goes to C-Store Dive.

Hello, this is Erin Del Conte, editor-in-chief with C-Store Decisions, and you're listening to C-Store Talks, a podcast where we talk all things convenience.

Welcome to the C-Star Talks podcast.

I'm so glad you're here today because today we're going to be speaking with Babir Sultan about how he's using AI as a small operator and how one of his AI agents caught a $25,000 error.

Don't forget, if you're a retailer, sign up for our Chain of the Year celebration, which is happening on October 7th at the Knack Show, and nominate a young executive for our 40 Under 40.

I'll put both those links in the show notes so you can find them easily.

And we'll be back next month with another C-Store Talks podcast.

How do you lean into that strength in international markets, capitalizing on the differences in real estate?

The C-Store has been huge.

Okay.

Because what you don't have probably in any country around the world and that you do have in the United States are 200,000 freestanding QSR restaurants with a pickup window.

U.S. is a it's an anomaly in that regard.

So when you think about how do I penetrate these markets around the world, the C-Store, which most concepts won't work in that venue, are just a gift because there are C-Stores all over.

And we have some of the biggest C-Store partners there.

In the industry around the world.

Not even close.

The convenience store sector has realized this vulnerability and they are attacking it with terrifying efficiency.

The evolution of the C-Store is arguably the single biggest external threat to traditional quick service and fast casual restaurants right now.

Without a doubt.

I

mean, they have moved from being a distress purchase, you know, a place you go when nothing else is open to an actual destination.

It's wild.

The C-Store dive reports we pulled illustrate a scale of food service expansion that is just staggering.