Co ee’s Comeback

INTRODUCING OUR NEW

Make everyday a celebration with a Birthday Cake Ooey Gooey!

• Bright Packaging Stands Out on Shelf • Tastes Just Like a Birthday Cake • Simple Thaw & Sell Format • Long 60-Day Shelf Life • Convenient 10-Count Merchandisers

The Hub carries upwards of a dozen varieties of made-on-site, grab-and-go breakfast sandwiches.

Pilot Co.’s Pilot Flying J travel centers, with more than 750 locations in 44 states and six Canadian provinces, serve fresh, hot breakfast at more than 300 participating sites. Because many of its guests are professional drivers and other essential workers, the stores have remained open 24/7 throughout the pandemic.

“We’ve seen plenty of demand in the breakfast daypart, especially as we’ve added new items made fresh in our stores,” said Jamie King, senior director of food and beverage for Pilot Flying J.

Among the chain’s signature items are a popular breakfast pizza and a recently introduced jumbo burrito, a warm tortilla stuffed with eggs, cheddar cheese, tater tots, crispy bacon and Goolsby Tennessee sausage. Four new grab-and-go breakfast sandwiches on croissants, biscuits and French toast, added earlier this year, have also been enthusiastically received by guests, King noted.

This past summer, the stores featured an LTO French Toast Stacker Sandwich, which quickly earned a fan following, she said. For a knife-andfork meal, the stores offer biscuits and gravy, as well as scrambled eggs with bacon and sausage. CSD

fast facts:

• Innovation in the form of limited-time offers is enticing breakfast customers. • Breakfast sandwiches get creative with new carriers beyond bread. • Retailers report strong customer demand for breakfast items.

COFFEE’S COMEBACK

As co ee tra c returns to c-stores, retailers are wooing customers with new fl avors, as well as cold-brew o erings.

Emily Boes • Editorial Assistant

As traffi c to c-stores slowly increased in 2021, c-store retailers drew customers back to the coffee segment with seasonal and unique fl avors, a variety of blends, as well as cold-brew options. Now, as the year comes to a close, retailers are adapting to a more consistent fl ow of consumers, especially in the hot dispensed category, and that’s meant positive news for category sales.

fast facts:

• C-stores are enticing hot dispensed customers with seasonal coffee fl avors. • Retailers see hot dispensed sales trending upward in 2021 after a challenging 2020. • While bean-to-cup is trending, some retailers prefer the benefi ts of traditional brewing.

At Cliff’s Local Market, 2021 hot dispensed sales are outperforming 2020 sales, now that more people are returning to the store, confi rmed Derek Thurston, director of foodservice operations for Cliff’s, which operates 20 locations in New York.

In fact, during October 2021, Cliff’s coffee, cappuccino and cold brew sales were up 13.3% for the month compared to last October, he said. However, the category is still falling short of 2019 sales.

At Tiger Fuel Co.’s The Market convenience stores, hot dispensed sales also dropped in 2020 due to the pandemic, but they continue to rise in 2021.

“We are up around 11% from 2019,” said Lisa Dollins, pricebook manager of Tiger Fuel Co., which currently operates 10 locations in Virginia.

Both retailers expect growth in the hot dispensed segment to continue in 2022.

FRESH AND BOLD FLAVORS

Five years ago, Cliff’s Local Market started a relationship with local roaster Utica Coffee and offers customers a steady year-round selection of blends that perform well.

“What we typically do is we have our house blend, our Dark Adirondack (and) our ‘Wake The Hell Up!’ blend, which is one of their most popular blends,” said Thurston.