Convenience stores putting pressure on fast-food chains

Hot, affordable choices designed to steal away hungry customers.

NEW YORK — Saying “convenience store food” may make people think of spinning hot dogs by the counter, but places like 7-Eleven are expanding their hot food offerings in hopes of stealing customers away from fast-food chains.

The push by convenience stores into hot, fast, affordable foods is just one of the pressures facing chains like Burger King, Wendy’s and Taco Bell. The traditional fastfood chains are also fighting for customers with smaller restaurant chains, and with supermarkets that offer prepared foods for busy shoppers.

Low prices and speed for readyto-eat foods at convenience stores are big factors. McDonald’s partly blames its declining number of customer visits in the U.S. on its failure to hold onto the deal-seekers at the cheaper end of its menu after eliminating the Dollar Menu.

“If you go to convenience store conventions, all they talk about is the decline of gas and tobacco, so they have to become more like (fast food),” Dunkin’ Donuts CEO Nigel Travis said in March, noting the effect of convenience stores on his business.

In the past year, 7-Eleven has added $1.99 chicken sandwiches and cheeseburgers kept in warming cases. That’s in addition to sandwich melts the chain introduced in 2015. The chain — which still sells hot dogs by the counter — has expanded to about 8,900 U.S. locations and says food is a top priority.

“We can drop in a product (in stores) overnight, and all of a sudden we’re in a brand-new business,” says Nancy Smith, the company’s senior vice president of the chain’s food and drinks.

Convenience store prices points can also be a draw for people who may have less money to spend. About 60 percent of convenience store food customers have household incomes of less than $40,000, the National Association of Convenience Stores said in a recent report.

Prepared foods and drinks like

JULIO CORTEZ / AP Customers use a touchscreen to order food at a QuickChek convenience store in Cedar Knolls, N.J. In 2016, 22 percent of convenience stores’ sales came from prepared foods like pizzas, sandwiches, burgers, coffee and fountain sodas, up steadily from 13...