{"id":5640,"date":"2015-11-12T10:31:58","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T10:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom.chainstoreguide.com\/?p=5640"},"modified":"2015-11-12T10:31:58","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T10:31:58","slug":"the-restaurant-industrys-secret-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/2015\/11\/the-restaurant-industrys-secret-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Restaurant Industry\u2019s Secret Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been one of those days where you\u2019re driving around in a freak rainstorm with a growling stomach and a gas light that\u2019s been on for miles. You struggle back and forth about whether or not to take your chances and test that gas station sushi myth because it\u2019s just so convenient. As you walk into <strong>QuikTrip<\/strong> you instantly realize you do not smell that usual c-store smell, but the most mouthwatering, fresh pizza and flatbread smell you love. That\u2019s right; there\u2019s a new threat in town and it isn\u2019t what the restaurant industry expected.<\/p>\n<p>The first rule that FastCasual.com recently stated in the article \u201c7 Ways to Grow Your Brand Via Nontraditional Spaces\u201d is to meet the customers where they are at. Customers have to fill up their gas tanks and their stomachs at some point, so why wouldn\u2019t c-stores capitalize on this theory. Luckily for QuikTrip, testing this theory has already begun. The Tulsa, OK-based c-store chain is testing a new in-store, sit-down restaurant concept called QT Kitchens at only one of its 707 U.S. locations. The restaurant offers sandwiches, flatbreads, pizzas, drinks, and even dessert.\u00a0 The customer can order from a touch-screen computer or at the counter. Later this fall, the location will add a drive-thru window for even more convenience.<\/p>\n<p>While c-stores like QuikTrip and <strong>Wawa<\/strong> might have the upper-hand in convenience and are in direct competition with fast casual brands, restaurants are continuously looking for smaller and more unusual outlets to provide their customer with familiar brands. In particular, <strong>TravelCenters of America<\/strong> has been very successful in offering a wide variety of family restaurants and even quick service restaurants like <strong>Black Bear Diner<\/strong>, <strong>Iron Skillet<\/strong>, and <strong>Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen<\/strong>. Many gas stations and c-stores are equipped with <strong>Krispy Kreme<\/strong> or <strong>Dunkin\u2019 Donut<\/strong> locations for those looking for breakfast food while <strong>Pita Pit<\/strong>, <strong>Subway<\/strong>, and <strong>BLIMPIE<\/strong> can be found to satisfy lunch and dinner cravings.<\/p>\n<p>Both fast casual and quick service restaurants are going to need to start reconsidering who the real competition is and what it will be like when c-stores start to take hold of the dining out market. Pretty soon c-stores will start converting the hotdog roller grills to <strong>Chipotle<\/strong>-style ordering, and changing consumers\u2019 views on gas station sushi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been one of those days where you\u2019re driving around in a freak rainstorm with a growling stomach and a gas light that\u2019s been on for miles. You struggle back and forth about whether or not to take your chances and test that gas station sushi myth because it\u2019s just so convenient. As you walk&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/2015\/11\/the-restaurant-industrys-secret-competition\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Restaurant Industry\u2019s Secret Competition<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"post-template-no-sidebar.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-5640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-restaurant-foodservice","tag-insight","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chainstoreguide.com\/offthechain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}