Casey's General Stores, Inc. CASY

The business

Casey's runs 2,944 convenience stores, about seven in ten of them in towns of fewer than 20,000 people, which is the entire point. In a place with no restaurant open after nine, the Casey's is the restaurant. It bakes its own pizza, sandwiches and doughnuts on site, and prepared food carries a gross margin near 60% against single digits on merchandise. Fuel brings people to the lot; the kitchen is where the money is made.

The company distributes to itself from three warehouses, which is why the food margin holds where a franchised competitor's would not.