Convenience Confidential is a video series where C-Store Dive Senior Reporter Brett Dworski analyzes the biggest stories and developments shaping convenience retail. Here is an edited transcript of today’s episode. You can also find these videos on LinkedIn
At a time when tariffs, geopolitical uncertainty and broader economic headwinds have made the convenience retail operating environment more challenging than ever, Casey's continues to outperform its competitors — especially inside its convenience stores.
Since the company publicly began reporting inside same-store sales in fiscal 2021, Casey's has seen positive growth with this metric every year since then, even as consumer habits change rapidly.
This level of consistency in c-stores is pretty rare, especially as publicly traded competitors like Circle K, 7-Eleven and Arko all see soft merchandise demand and, in some cases, have seen negative same-store sales growth through the years.
So how is Casey's doing this?
The answer, to me at least, comes down to a pretty simple idea: that Casey's doesn't treat itself like a c-store brand, but it treats itself like a QSR restaurant chain.
CEO Darren Rebelez came from IHOP in 2019 and he has publicly pushed Casey's to compete less with traditional c-store chains and more with restaurants. That mindset has shaped everything from Casey's food strategy to its operations across the whole company.
Casey's focuses on things that restaurants do: food quality, consistency, menu innovation and convenience. Its pizza business has become the main driver, but recently, even things like wings have become a huge priority for the company. And Casey's plans to expand [wings] across its whole network [through] 2028, the company recently said in its investor day.
Bottom line: Casey's isn't winning because it's just better at running a convenience store business. It's winning because it built a business around becoming a better restaurant brand — one that also happens to sell gas.
