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Money & Company

Convenience stores poaching customers from fast-food chains

By Tiffany Hsu
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McDonald’s and other fast-food mega-chains may be losing customers to convenience stores such as 7-Eleven and Ampm, according to a report Tuesday.

Convenience chains including Chevron, Circle K and Wawa often offer their own equivalents of value meals, siphoning away fast-food customers looking for a quick snack, according to research group Technomic.

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Ampm offers a $1.49 rib sandwich that looks an awful lot like McDonald’s cult-favorite McRib. Circle K has 44-ounce fountain drinks for 89 cents. Even more than fast-food drive-throughs, convenience chains facilitate impulse buying, which 31% of customers blamed for their purchases there.

More than a quarter of convenience store customers are converts from fast-food, according to Technomic’s report. And out of all convenience store patrons, 82% say they buy prepared foods there at least once a month. More than half snack there once a week or more.

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-- Tiffany Hsu

Money & Company
Tiffany Hsu

Tiffany Hsu is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she wrote about the California economy, fast food, restaurants, retail and alternative energy for the Business section. A Bay Area native, UC Berkeley graduate and eternal Nor-Cal fan, she once worked for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She also did a stint at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where she developed a passion for sweet tea. She still has faith that someday she’ll find two economists who agree.

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