Convenience stores are upping their food game and one concept is taking advantage of it.
This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Jim Norberg, the CEO of the convenience-store chicken concept Krispy Krunchy Chicken.
We had Jim on largely because convenience stores are getting a lot of foodservice business right now. Traffic at convenience stores is up 17% since before the pandemic, compared with 5% at quick-service restaurants—meaning that some of the lost traffic at restaurants is heading to the local gas station.
One reason is the higher quality food c-stores are putting out now. Krispy Krunchy is taking advantage of that.
Norberg is a former executive with McDonald’s, and he is bringing a restaurant mentality to the concept. The brand is getting into third-party delivery and recently hired its first chief marketing officer in Alice Crowder.
We talk with Jim about the company’s rapid …