The famed words in my house, “kids pack a bag we are heading out for a road trip!” If you want to see kids move faster than lightning tell them you are hitting the road and the magic begins. I rarely worry about packing food today as our road trips food demands are met at convenience stores.
Don’t think of convenience stores for travel as your regular pit stop, that’s old school. Today, it’s time to get schooled in how to use convenience stores for travel. Are you ready to learn 6 surprising facts about convenience store food and drink options?
Pack your luggage, set your navigation system and let’s travel the highways, byways, and backroads. Pit stop at those exits marked with convenience stores to get fueled up both at the gas tank and in your belly. Who’s ready to lavishly live road trips out loud from RV’s to SUV’s and everything in between. The 6 surprising facts about convenience store food and drink options will no longer elude you!
6 Surprising Facts About Convenience Store Food And Drink Options
Today’s post is a sponsored post, but opinions and tips are my own. As a globe-trotting family, our trips include everything from road trips to cruises to airports. The surprising facts I am about to share with you are some of the ways that make travel survivable and easy!
LOCAL CONVENIENCE STORES & THOSE ON HIGHWAYS & BYWAYS
Ice hockey and family obligations keep me on the road. What have I noticed lately when we stop at our local Convenience stores (from here within referred to as c-stores)? Actually, those old tightly packed shelves with bags of chips are there but less predominant and a whole new focus on freshly prepared meals for busy families is on the rise in most c-stores.
How is this possible? The National Associate of Convenience Stores (NACS) holds annual trade shows. Trending foods and beverages are presented at these shows. It’s not just the power of suggestion, it is about what we all are demanding from the Millenials to Gen X’ers, we are revolutionaries in our asks and they are being met. C-store owners receive a light education at the trade shows, keeping them up to date with trends and very prominent programs, so they are all cohesive in the community as well as trending food and beverages.
Further, the c-stores share in the vision of a program ‘Partnership for a Healthier America’ and the c-stores care about the earth as well and have begun working with ‘Keep America Beautiful’ in each of their respective communities.
Scoping Out Healthy Food Options
It used to be a stop at the convenience store meant I was coming out with a cup of ice and the kids were grabbing slushies, bags of chips and some bagged cookies. As a healthy lifestyle enthusiast, I often starved for hours between stops because I refuse to put junk into my body. While I had food oddities in the car, I prefer my salads and veggie wraps fresh, not on ice and they were simply not offered.
Do you remember traveling with huge coolers in the car and stopping to eat? The ice messes that leaked, the sandwiches that got soggy? Forget all that headache, pack less, eat fresh and snack a bit less while driving. These are all outgrowths of the new convenience store options for food and beverages.
1. HEALTHY OPTIONS IN CONVENIENCE STORES
Unbuckle those seat belts, grab the kids, and head on in for your bathroom break, fuel up and food stop. Your local c-store on the road has fresh fruits, vegetables, in both by the piece or by the convenience cup for your car cup holder. Isn’t it great to not have to tote separate cup holders to divide food into?
It’s all in the packaging
New packaging gives you proportioned servings that fit sleekly into your car cup holders and all mamma has to do is buy, peel back the label and put it in the cup holder. Drive on moms and dads, healthy convenience food has arrived!
Did Someone Say Drinks?
Refreshing cold bottle water, Oikos Nonfat Yogurt drinks and dried fruit and nuts are so popular. The packaging for each makes it a ‘to-go’ unpassable item. Did you know that c-stores sell about 50% of the country’s single served bottled water? Nuts and dried fruits come in those convenience cups as well as resealable bags making them perfect to stow and go!
2. ALTERNATIVE SNACKING
Who loves protein and energy-rich snacks? Truly on top of the trending list for great c-store grabs are some of these items. Protein, and plant-based ingredients, great flavors, low in sugar, and totally energizing are what define these trendy snacks.
Did you know the biggest consumer of these products, those that are demanding them are millennials? Did I mention how convenient these are to tote along and also stock a few in your travel bags for later?
3. MIXOLOGY
Do you remember going through the slushy-type drinks and being your own mixologist? Well, a hot trend in snacking is merging flavors. You so were ahead of your time. What is a bit different is how to merge those flavors. For instance, sweet and spicy in a beverage, or sweet and sour or sweet and salty, think Salted Caramel and how trendy it is.
Mixing flavors is not just for the drinks, rather for those yummy sweet things we all hate to admit we munch on, but truly crave. Here’s a look at the hottest and trendiest on the market.
- Skittles® Sweet Heat is spicing things up in December 2017. Fruity flavors and a spicy kick with Fiery Watermelon, Blazin’ Mango, Flamin’ Orange, Sizzlin’ Strawberry and Lemon Spark.
- Snickers® Peanut Butter Crisper, debuts in December! The balance of sweet, salty, creamy and crispy is sure to satisfy. Did I mention it comes in four squares?
- Trolli® Twisted Sour Brite Crawlers let you get that chewing need out of the way and of course, the inside is so soft and don’t forget the burst of sour berry flavor! Flavors include blue raspberry, strawberry, and green apple.
4. MULTI-TASKING BEVERAGES
Really did you read that subtitle? Multi-tasking beverages! Here, I thought only humans multi-tasked but you asked for it and the beverages have arrived. Beverages like Celsius®, Pedialyte Powder Packets, and Vitamin Water Active Nutrient Enhanced Performance Drinks are stocking the shelves and refrigerated cases.
5. Gourmet On The Road
Can’t find a sweet shop but you are still craving some fabulous gourmet sweets?
Are you more into the meat side of gourmet? C-stores have you covered!
How about Kinder Joy, SmashMallow or Pearson Ranch for a little more meat!
6. Cold Brew Is The New Hot Brewed
Forego the burned lips, the burned tongue, and all the spills from coffee tops not on tight, meet Heyday Cold-Brew Coffee. Soaked coffee grounds from Fair Trade beans placed in cool water for hours, filtered 2x and then add in cane sugar and a light splash of cream and you have met Heyday Cold-Brew Coffee.
“I’M THIRSTY! LET’S MAKE A PIT STOP AT THE NEXT SERVICE STATION”
Next time you hear those words, rejoice because the hot spot for trendy food and drinks is right there at the end of the highway ramps at your local convenience stores. Lavishly live road trips out loud and share what you learned about 6 Surprising Facts About Convenience Store Food And Drink Options! ~Dana
