Familiar trappings get you prepared for the rigors of the day, every day.

It difficult to meet someone without a close personal connection to a convenience store, and in more than a few cases, the glue binding the relationship is coffee.

Coffee keeps us coming back to the C-store, compelling us to engage in a ritual that creates a rhythm for the work week. It’s at the C-store coffee bar that we find a space to lock in for the day; to begin to wrap our heads around the challenges laid out before us. Coffee amps us up, but the act of getting it and preparing it comforts us by wrapping us in the familiar.

Specialty coffee shops, whether corporate or neighborhood, offer many memorable choices, but the consumer experience is a little on the passive side. The baristas are doing the heavy lifting. All that’s left for you to do is flipping in a little sugar and cream.

The C-store experience is more immersive, bordering on the ceremonial. You’re in it from start to finish, pouring and blending a hot or cold brew (or tea! or hot chocolate! or cappuccino!) to your specifications, selecting the syrups and creamers you like, popping in a booster shot, and doing something crazy like finishing it off with a dollop of whipped cream.

Better yet, the best C-stores create a memorable environment with which to surround you while you carry out your prep work, a private world where coffee rules all, a do-it-yourself wonderland that make your experience resonate just a little bit more.

Pointing out that there’s nothing quite like the convenience store coffee experience seemed appropriate to us here at SSCS, given that it’s National Coffee Day. If you’d like to celebrate, too, this useful article from NACS tells you who’s giving it away for free, today, along with other interesting facts regarding coffee and our industry.