Fast-food restaurants are losing breakfast customers to convenience stores. Morning meal traffic to fast-food chains rose 1% in the three months ended in July, while visits to food-forward convenience stores climbed 9%. The trend is largely driven by “food-forward convenience stores” like Wawa and Casey’s General Store.

Year-over-year morning traffic to fast-food chains has fallen every quarter for the last three years, with visits dropping 8.7% in the second quarter. McDonald’s morning visits fell from 33.5% in the first half of 2019 to 29.9% in the first half of 2025. To boost traffic, the chain has included breakfast items in its new Extra Value Meals.

Prepared foods have been a lifeline for convenience stores, with overall foodservice sales reaching $121 billion in 2024. Most customers visit c-stores during morning and evening rush hours, presenting opportunities to sell breakfast or dinner. Customers perceive buying breakfast from a c-store as “good bang for their buck” and appreciate the wider range of options available. Fast-food chains are lacking variety but consumers prioritize quality. Circana’s Portalatin emphasizes that quality is the ultimate differentiator in the industry. Casey’s General Store, known for its breakfast pizza, is the third-largest c-store chain in the US and reported 5.6% same-store sales growth for its prepared food and beverages. Casey’s breakfast pizza has a cult following similar to Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza. Brady Caviness enjoys Casey’s breakfast pizza while traveling and opts for McDonald’s, Dunkin’, or Starbucks when at home.

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