Commuter Consumer

Driven by Hunger

The average American eats about 20 meals a year in the car, says Harry Balzer, vice president of the NPD Group Inc.

More and more often, that American is reaching for a breakfast sandwich, which is not only the No. 1 food ordered at restaurants but is also the country's fastest-growing breakfast food, he says.

Getting food from a drive-through has become so common (1 in 5 restaurant meals is bought that way) that Balzer says a new appliance has appeared, the fastest-growing supplier of prepared food today. It's the car window.

Drive-throughs began getting serious in the mid-1980s, which is when Dunkin' Donuts Inc. introduced its first one, according to Andrew Mastrangelo, a company spokesman.

Now it has 2,000, and 500 of those have two lanes -- one lane for coffee, one for coffee and baked goods.

Even though the nation's 138,000 convenience stores sell three-quarters of the gas in the country, says Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the convenience store association, a car is much more than its tank. It's the thirsty and caffeine-fueled driver the stores desire so intensely. "A lot of convenience stores think of coffee as the new black gold as opposed to gas," he says. "You only make a penny or two profit on gas, if you're lucky. You can make more off a 12-ounce cup of coffee than a 12-gallon fill-up."

Still, it's important to have both, and perhaps a breakfast sandwich as well. Steve Sheetz, chairman of Sheetz Inc., says his family started out with a combination restaurant and dairy store, making their own ice cream, in Altoona, Pa., in 1952, an era of modest commutes. Now the family has 310 stores in six states and instead of selling ham by the pound, they're selling it by the sandwich.

"When we started in business, people weren't in such a hurry," Sheetz says. "Now they spend so much time in the car, the car has become almost an office. They're looking for convenience."

While one researcher speculates that commuters are going out of their way to satisfy urges for gourmet coffee -- having an influence on traffic patterns labeled the Starbucks effect -- most drivers remain in the market for speed and efficiency. Sheetz says his customers are multi-taskers, filling their tanks up with gas and their cups with a beverage. Of course they want a big, clean restroom. And they want choice, he says. Over the years, the Sheetz coolers have grown steadily so that they now are filled up with 350 to 500 different kinds and flavors of drinks, Sheetz says.

And then there's the 7-Eleven, with a name that harks back to the day when keeping a store open from 7 in the morning until 11 at night was so astounding it warranted building a business around the very concept. The company went on to take credit for being the first convenience store to offer coffee-to-go, which it tested on Long Island in 1964, says Kevin Gardner, a spokesman for the chain. The latest milestone is in lids. The stores are beginning to offer a lid for coffee that can more easily open and close, preventing spills. The company sells more than 1 million cups of coffee a day, along with 30 million gallons of fountain soft drinks. The company boasts 27,900 stores that it says rang up $41 billion in worldwide sales in 2004.