(Radio Iowa) – The Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain announced recently that their second quarter income was up 14 percent from last year. President and C-E-O Darren Rebelez said during a conference call for investors that they have done research on the impact of the economy on the business. “There’s sentiment out there among consumers, and then there’s how they behave. And I think broadly speaking, if you look at different income cohorts, the middle and upper income cohorts are feeling good about, about the economy,” he says. He says the lower income customers are under more economic pressure. “But they also say that they intend to maintain their visit frequency to convenience stores. So that’s encouraging for us,” Rebelez says. He says the quarterly numbers show their actual behavior in the stores is that they’re still coming as frequently as they were.

Rebelez says they may take more advantage of coupons or special offers. “They are being more discerning about where they spend the money and how they spend it,” he says. Gas prices have come down, but Rebelez doesn’t think that is the biggest reason that sales in the stores have held up. “We think that people are really picking and choosing where they’re going to spend their money and where the best intersection of quality and value come together is where people are really spending their money,” he says. “Low fuel prices certainly help, and I think a more robust in store offer and getting that value equation right is probably the bigger driver of the results inside the store.”

Rebelez says less than two percent of their sales are SNAP eligible, so the government shutdown and the delay of SNAP benefits didn’t have much of an impact their business.