This article is brought to you by McLane.
“Food is one of the most significant growth drivers for the future of c-stores,” said Farley Kaiser, vice president of retail foodservice at McLane. “Yet the reality is that foodservice is one of the most complex and operationally demanding parts of the business. Operators are balancing countless priorities every day, which is why solutions that simplify execution and delivery quality, and consistent products are so critical.”
Foodservice made up 28.0% of in-store sales in 2025 and contributed 38.3% of in-store gross profit, according to the NACS State of the Industry Report® of 2025 Data.
But retailers looking to heat up some of those sales and profits for their own stores could face challenges when building a food program.
One important task is figuring out exactly what should go on the menu. Do you start with sandwiches or bank on breakfast foods? Operators also have to figure out cooking equipment, food packaging, space constraints and a slew of logistics, from labor to food waste.
The Innovation Kitchen at McLane’s headquarters in Temple, Texas, provides a space for operators to get hands-on with equipment and products as they learn.
“McLane does more than distribute food and retail items,” Kaiser said. “We support retailers on the journey to build and operate successful foodservice programs.”
Labor and Kitchen Space
One of the biggest barriers that retailers face is labor constraints, according to Kaiser.
Foodservice can be a revenue driver for c-stores, but it requires employees who know how to work with food. In 2025, the average cost to hire a part-time associate was $1,057 and the average cost to train them was $1,038, according to the NACS State of the Industry Talent Insights Dashboard. With wages rising in recent years—2025 was the first year NACS recorded an average full-time hourly wage above $15—those expenses can add up.
Rather than cutting hours in the kitchen, McLane looks for ways to make the work more efficient, Kaiser said.
“We evaluate labor through the lens of automation, asking whether a machine can perform the task more consistently and efficiently. If anyone can push a button and achieve the same food-safe, high-quality result every time, that’s the direction we want to go,” Kaiser said.
Packaging can also play a role in helping with labor constraints, according to Anne Hughes, McLane’s director of retail foodservice.
She pointed to McLane’s Central Eats hot breakfast and lunch sandwiches, which arrive prepackaged and can be heated in their bags with either a microwave or rapid-cook oven. “It reduces a lot of the labor of hand-building the sandwich in the back of the house, but it also streamlines the handling of the product,” Hughes said.
Limited space is another challenge for retailers, according to Hughes.
“The majority of [convenience retailers] do not have cookie cutter operations,” said Jeremy Reinicke, corporate executive chef at McLane. Multilocation retailers have kitchens of different sizes and different configurations—and many operate in space-constrained environments.
He said that McLane’s Innovation Kitchen can be a place to open retailers’ eyes to what is possible. The full-scale replica of a convenience store allows retailers to test equipment and products in an immersive environment.
For example, retailers can see precisely what a 6-by-8-foot section dedicated to foodservice would look like, said Reinicke.
“You might have a worktop freezer with an oven on top, a packaging rack overhead and a prep station with a cutting board alongside the oven,” he said. “It shows operators how to maximize every inch of available space.”
Sell Food for Longer
When it comes to fresh food, hold time is on everyone’s mind, according to Reinicke.
“The longer that a product holds its integrity and its quality, the longer an opportunity the retailer has to sell it,” he said. “If something has a two-hour window to sell, it’s not as valuable as something that has a three-hour or a four-hour window.”
A number of factors go into determining a product’s hold time, including how it is packaged and what equipment is used to store it. McLane helps retailers learn more about choosing the hot holding equipment and packaging that meet their needs.
“The packaging strategy depends on the product,” Reinicke said. “If retaining moisture is important, we may recommend a sleeve, bag or box without vents. If excess moisture could impact quality, we’ll opt for vented packaging to allow it to escape and help maintain product integrity.” It’s also important that the packaging has a window so customers can see the food that they are buying, he added. When you have only a few seconds to win over a potential shopper, how food is packaged and displayed in the store can make a world of difference.
Entry-level hot holding equipment that uses hot surfaces needs to be at the appropriate setting so that the food doesn’t continue to cook, Reinicke said.
Higher-end hot hold equipment that circulates hot air might carry a higher price tag, but it also helps extend the hold time of hot foods, he added.
“I almost always show customers food that’s been held for a few hours,” Reinicke said. “I prepare it in advance, package it appropriately and hold it under the same conditions a retailer would. After they’ve tasted it, I tell them what they just ate was cooked 2.5 hours ago.”
Solving Chicken Challenges and Pizza Problems
McLane Fresh takes a consultative approach to working with retailers. In one example, the company worked with a retailer looking to build a chicken program, Hughes said.
The retailer visited the Innovation Kitchen to test products and walk through the oven and hot hold equipment. McLane staff then traveled to one of the retailer’s locations to train store managers.
The training was very hands-on and included everything from setting up the cooking line efficiently to safely cooking the chicken up to the proper temperature, Hughes said.
She said the training also covered suggested packaging, hold times and merchandising best practices. McLane worked alongside store teams to set up point-of-purchase materials, signage and branding elements throughout the store to help create a cohesive customer experience and drive awareness of the new program. “Then we actually built out what that merchandising looked like in their hot hold,” Hughes said. “How many chicken strips would you want to have for lunch? How many sandwiches do you want to have for lunch? How many sides?”
Retailers dealing with shrink can also struggle with pizza. While it’s a popular menu item for c-stores, offering it typically requires staff to cook a whole pie of six to eight pieces just to sell pizza by the slice, Reinicke said.
The challenge becomes selling that whole pie before the quality degrades.
McLane helps address that barrier with its Prendisimo Duo Slice pizza, Reinicke said. The Duo Slice is an angled rectangle-shaped pizza that is cut crosswise into the same wedge shape that would come from a full pie, but allows operators to bake two slices at a time.
“The consumer doesn’t know the difference whether an operator cooks two slices or eight at a time. It merchandises the same,” Reinicke said.
Helping a retailer with hands-on support for starting a chicken program or offering pizza that reduces shrink are just a couple examples of how McLane helps retailers solve the entire foodservice equation, according to Kaiser. McLane’s goal is to be a strategic partner that helps operators solve complex challenges and maximize opportunities.
“At our core, we are a team of operators,” Kaiser said. And that operational background is backed up by McLane’s extensive history, experience and partnerships. “We have been behind the lines recognizing what works and what doesn’t work and how to launch and scale successful programs.”
