It’s not always easy for a c-store chain to maintain quality in its food items when it’s operating hundreds of stores that are supposed to be satisfying spontaneous cravings at all hours of the day and night. But if a customer finds that the item she’s been craving tastes a little off, or like it’s been sitting under a heat lamp for too long, she may not be coming back.
“A company will gradually cost engineer the flavor out of a product,” said Carrie Stojak, Casey’s vice president of brand strategic insights and culinary innovation, “until you taste it and it isn’t the same thing you tasted 10 years ago.” But Casey’s, she said, has made a point of maintaining the same quality in its pizza for the past 40 years; the cooks still prepare everything from scratch.
“Our pizza tastes exactly the way it did in 1984,” she said. “Did we riff on the toppings? Of course. But our pizza is very, very sacred, and we are very careful about it.