Bloomberg特写：Casey's本周推平底披萨，便利店鲜食加速分流达美乐、必胜客

Convenience stores are stepping up their push into prepared food, seeking to lure more diners away from the likes of Domino’s and Pizza Hut.

Casey’s General Stores Inc., the country’s third-largest convenience-store chain, is launching pan pizza this week as a more indulgent cousin to its existing pies. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven plans to sell food from its restaurant brands in more stores and QuikTrip is doubling the size of its kitchens to make more meals to order. Texas based Buc-ee’s has become a culinary destination thanks to its barbecued meats.

The push has been building for years as declining smoking rates and more fuel-efficient cars weaken two longtime pillars of the convenience-store business. At the same time, Americans pinched by elevated gas prices are looking for cheaper meals. Casey’s seeks to price its pizzas $1 to $2 below national competitors, according to the company.

Its new pan pizza has a fluffy crust, a crispy bottom and edge-to-edge mozzarella. The goal is to persuade customers that food made at a gas station can hold its own against restaurants.

“Good pizza is good pizza,” said Andrew Kintigh, culinary director at Casey’s, which has about 3,000 locations across the US and ranks as the country’s fifth-largest pizza chain.

Prepared food and drinks last year accounted for 29% of industry sales excluding fuel, compared with 12% two decades earlier, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores. That’s in contrast with cigarettes, once a staple purchase at convenience stores, but now represent a much smaller share of sales. Additionally, Americans consumed 4% less gasoline in 2025 than in 2019, data from the US Energy Information Administration shows.

Chains with restaurant-like menus such as Casey’s, Wawa and Sheetz generate nearly two-thirds of the industry’s food sales despite accounting for just a quarter of locations, according to research firm Technomic.

Sales of prepared food and drinks at convenience stores rose 3.9% in 2025. Meanwhile, fast-food pizza chains are struggling, with sales falling 0.3% last year, Technomic data show.

“Convenience stores are increasingly in the consumer consideration set” as their food improves, said Donna Hood Crecca, a Technomic senior principal.

At Casey’s, annual revenue from prepared food and dispensed beverages rose about 22% over two years to nearly $1.8 billion in the fiscal year ended April 30. Around 71% of its stores are in markets with fewer than 20,000 people, where restaurant competition is often thinner.

“We view ourselves as a restaurant that happens to sell gas,” Tom Brennan, the chain’s chief merchandising officer, said in an interview.

Still, investors are questioning how long Casey’s can maintain its recent pace. The company’s new plan calls for slower profit growth than it clocked in the prior three years. Last quarter’s same-store sales also missed expectations. Shares advanced nearly 27% this year through Oct. 23, but they lost almost 24% since their June peak.

That puts more pressure on food, already one of the biggest drivers of how often customers visit Casey’s. The company expects to shell out about $800 million on property and equipment this fiscal year, with roughly three-quarters of its capital spending going toward new stores and remodels, including kitchen upgrades.

It plans to bring wings, currently available in fewer than a third of its locations, to the rest of the chain. Casey’s has also trained more than 30,000 employees on its pizza-making methods. The chain is hoping the new pan pizza will bring more customers in, particularly for dinner.

“We expect food to deliver outsize growth versus the rest of the business,” Brennan said.