RaceTrac Uncovers Surprising Morning Purchase Trends

ATLANTA — Mornings are not necessarily for breakfast anymore, according to new insights from RaceTrac Petroleum Inc.

While reviewing purchases by its loyal customers, the convenience store retailer found that its TracFanatics purchase a wide range of items during the early hours of the day — like hot dogs, energy drinks and bags of ice. The purchases were made between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. 

According to the insights, RaceTrac customers are all about caffeinated drinks in the morning: 60 percent bought coffee, 26 percent bought fountain drinks and 14 percent bought energy drinks.

And though many customers crave pastries in the morning, some TracFanatics have other food in mind. Notably, three in five people chose hot dogs over doughnuts in the morning, and 16,901 roller grill items were sold in the morning compared to 9,694 doughnuts.

Other findings include:

• Customers purchased 30,360 pounds of ice daily between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m.
• In one year, TracFanatics ate 588 miles of roller grill items.
• Last winter TracFanatics drank 1 million gallons of coffee.

Looking at its loyal customers by state, RaceTrac also found that Georgia customers prefer a traditional breakfast — like a southern-style biscuit or croissant with egg, meat and cheese. In Louisiana, customers reach for caffeinated drinks for their morning pick me ups. 

In addition, customers in Florida prefer their breakfast on the go: bananas, muffins, doughnuts and apple fritters are top sellers. And in Texas, customers crave a little spice in the morning, like a breakfast burrito or a jalapeno kolache.

All statistics are averages of sales metrics gathered between Oct. 1, 2015 and Feb. 29, 2016.

To illustrate its customers' breakfast tastes, RaceTrac created an infographic, #WHATEVERGETSYOUGOING, highlighting its findings. To view the infographic, click here.

Atlanta-based RaceTrac now operates more than 425 convenience store locations in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.