Got to wondering about c-mart and gas station pizzas/foods after writing about a couple of them here, Hunts Brothers and Bellarico NY Style. I’m only talking about small licensed operations, not co-branded c-stores that have full-size food franchise operations within, like Pizza Hut, Pizza Inn, Dominos, and so on.
I’m not really sure who was the pioneer in this area, but the concept seems to be fairly wide-spread across the country now, with even 7-Eleven announcing they will jump into the fray with their own house brand pizza and wings, available 24 hours.
A cluster of these companies is centered in the Upper Midwest, so I suspect at least one company was spawned by former execs from another, of a family split. Since the Upper Midwest is so dominant in the frozen pizza manufacturing business (Freschetta, Tony’s, Red Baron, Totinos, DiGiorno,Tombstone, Jack’s….and those are just the companies I know of in Minnesota and Wisconsin, so maybe former execs from some of those companies started these concepts. No matter.
