Why RaceTrac’s Potbelly Play Signals a Bigger Tech Shift in C-Stores

RaceTrac bought Potbelly’s. Looks like the Sandwich Wars are about to begin, and we all are the beneficiaries.

Food in C-stores has been super interesting lately. C-stores as a whole are a very exciting part of retail right now. A few things that have contributed to that:

• Success. C-stores are carving out a very interesting niche in society. You have everything from a huge Buc-ee’s to a small corner store. And they are winning customers.

• Competition. At every level, there are multiple players executing very well. Wawa, Sheetz, Racetrac, Casey’s, Loves, Buc-ee’s—I could just keep going. And the smaller chains as well. They are performing and competing at a high level.

• Customer Behavior. C-stores are taking market share from pharmacies and eyeing QSRs. Rising costs of goods have narrowed pricing gaps, and customers notice. Some folks go pretty wild with their favorite chains. Not just planning their trips around C-stores but wearing merch and getting tattoos. That’s awesome.

• Technology. Some end-of-life hardware/software and new product offerings are causing C-stores to rethink their stack.

C-stores that have a food differentiator are leaning into that. C-stores that don’t are looking for it. They see fuel demand dropping with more efficient vehicles, tobacco’s decline, and the need for other revenue streams.

And those revenue streams imply integrations. It’s critical to be able to move quickly when the market is volatile.

Once C-stores step into food, the tech stack gets messy. Fuel and retail POS weren’t built for kitchens, mobile orders, delivery apps, and loyalty programs all firing at once. Suddenly you’re juggling systems that don’t speak the same language.

And the mess isn’t just technical, it’s operational. Kitchens run in seconds, pumps in minutes, inventory in days. Try forcing those clocks together. Add loyalty, fleet cards, third-party delivery, and PCI into the mix, and suddenly you’re managing five different tempos with three different data models. That’s why integrations stall, orders drop, and customers get frustrated.

We’ve seen this firsthand: mobile orders delayed because they rode a nightly batch file, loyalty redemptions failing at the pump because the POS didn’t talk to the kitchen system, inventory showing sandwiches you couldn’t actually make. These aren’t edge cases, these are just another Wednesday at scale.

The real problem isn’t buying new tools, it’s wiring them together. POS to KDS, loyalty to fuel, inventory to delivery apps. Each link slows you down. And in this game, speed matters. You need integrations that are real-time, lightweight, and repeatable, or you’re dead behind Starbucks and Chick-fil-A before you start.

That’s why the speed of integration problem just moved up the board.

In this case, having a base platform with open APIs and integration patterns is a game changer. Talking API to API is light years ahead of figuring out how to refactor a legacy product. That can turn the conversation from “which year” to “which quarter” pretty quickly. And it should change the approach to opportunities like this.

• Option 1: No integration. Simplest model, works out of the box. You want a sandwich? Order over there. Not the greatest customer experience, but it works.

• Option 2: MVP integration. Items and orders. Share item info, flow orders between two systems.

• Option 3: Full integration. Beyond buttons, can I throw up the actual menu and let you pick straight from that without embedding all that logic and content deeply in the POS? Can I hide the wires from the customer so they don’t feel that bump? Can I do it all in a maintainable and sustainable way, without adding undue tech debt? And can I do it fast enough to capitalize on the business opportunity in front of us?

Short answer, it depends on your people, process, and technology. Wish there was a magic answer, but that’s it. Do you have the right folks on the team, have you practiced the right plays, and do you have the right gear?

Evaluating all of these options can be a lot. We can help. We’ve refactored older systems to allow outside services, so we know that path pretty well. We’ve integrated services into modern and legacy POS systems. We’ve used new systems to design new shopping patterns. If you’re staring at that mountain, we can surely point out some climbing routes.

I think in this case, RaceTrac is in a great spot. They have a great solution, they have a great team, and they have a compelling offering. Super excited to see what direction they go and to enjoy the spoils of the Sandwich Wars.

Because this one could be a doozy. Strength vs. strength. Might have to get a few sandwiches and settle in for this one. I know a couple of really good and convenient sandwich options…