Casey’s app meets modern customer needs

If you’re going to invest in the emerging area of mobile retail apps, you might as well build it around the latest consumer trends.



Ankeny, Iowa-based convenience chain Casey’s General Stores Inc., which operates more than 1,900 stores in 14 Midwestern states, is releasing a new app that includes functionality for the growing consumer preference for prepared meals. The app allows Casey’s customers to order pizza, made-to-order sub sandwiches and appetizers.



Casey’s recently completed the implementation of online ordering in all of its stores company-wide, and the app makes online ordering even more convenient for customers using their mobile devices.



“Casey’s values our customers’ time and need for convenience,” said chairman and CEO Robert J. Myers. “We consider innovations such as online ordering and a mobile app additional ways we can make our products and services more accessible to our customers.”



Customers who download the app will also have access to special offers and promotions, be able to check gas prices at nearby locations, and play games for prizes. The app also has a feature that enables a customer to see the locations of all Casey’s stores between destinations along a planned travel route.



Although gamification and location-based services are also valuable features for both Casey’s and its customers, the ability to order prepared and fast food is the most interesting aspect of the new app. Pizza and sandwich chains such as Dominos and Subway already offer established apps that include advance order and payment functionality.



However, Casey’s is invading the mobile fast-food space while offering the added convenience of purchasing gas and basic grocery and CPG items in the same stop. Casey’s does not currently offer advance mobile payment, but the type of time-starved consumers who are most likely to turn to mobile ordering, the pull of convenience should still be strong.