5 Things Missourians Know About Casey’s That the Rest of the Country Doesn’t
Missouri’s governor once drove from Jefferson City to Joplin just to help cut a ribbon.
It wasn’t for a hospital, and it wasn’t for a factory.
It was for a warehouse full of pizza dough and gas station donuts.
These are the things about Casey’s that Missouri already knows, and the rest of the country doesn’t.
1. Casey’s Pizza Goes Square
Casey’s added a new pizza to its menu in June 2023, cut into squares instead of its usual triangle slices.
Missouri got there first.
St. Louis pizzerias have sliced pies into small squares for decades, a style locals call the party cut.
A Casey’s regular in St. Louis or Springfield clocks the resemblance immediately.
Casey’s sells the square-cut version only as a whole pizza, never by the slice, unlike the classic pies that rotate through the counter case all day.
Pepperoni still outsells every other topping, square-cut or not.
St. Louis had the party cut long before Casey’s ever squared off a pie.
2. Joplin Holds a Casey’s Warehouse
Casey’s built its third distribution center in Joplin, Missouri, opening it in April 2021 for $62 million.
The company is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa, but this warehouse belongs to Missouri.
It restocks pizza dough, donuts, and fuel-station staples for 400 to 600 Casey’s stores across Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas.
It also pays its 125 new employees an average of $50,000 a year.
Serious money for southwest Missouri.
Joplin’s own chamber of commerce called it the largest single company investment in the city since it rebuilt after the 2011 tornado, a comparison locals still reach for when a new project breaks ground.
Missouri’s governor and Joplin’s mayor both showed up for the ribbon cutting.
Casey’s handed over a $5,000 check to the United Way of Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas on its way out the door.
3. Missouri Ranks Third for Casey’s
Missouri hosts more Casey’s General Stores than every state except Iowa and Illinois, with roughly 405 locations open across the state as of early 2026.
Third place.
Not particularly close to fourth, either.
Kansas, the next-closest state in the region, runs a little over half of Missouri’s total.
Many other Casey’s states trail even further behind.
That density means a Missouri driver can cross long stretches of two-lane highway without ever losing sight of the familiar red-and-white sign for long.
Iowa keeps the headquarters.
Missouri keeps the density.
How Missouri’s Casey’s Count Stacks Up
Missouri’s third-place ranking counts open Casey’s locations, not sales or square footage.
A store tracker counts a two-lane-highway Casey’s the same way it counts one in a Kansas City suburb.
Iowa runs close to 600 Casey’s and Illinois around 520, so Missouri trails the top two by a few hundred stores, not by a landslide.
Kansas, the next state on the list, has fewer than 220.
4. Casey’s Breakfast Pizza Has a Nickname
Casey’s has sold breakfast pizza since September 2001, and longtime regulars just call it the bizza.
No pepperoni required.
It pulls in more than 2.5 million orders a year, loaded with eggs, sausage, and hash browns instead of pepperoni.
Someone who has never set foot in a Casey’s would have no idea what a bizza even is.
In Missouri, the word needs no explanation.
Order a bizza, and the person behind the counter won’t blink.
5. New Year’s Eve Beats the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl isn’t Casey’s biggest pizza night of the year.
It’s New Year’s Eve.
Halloween and Christmas trail close behind, according to the company’s own order data.
In many small Missouri towns, where Casey’s counts as one of the only kitchens still open once the sun goes down, that timing means something a city with a dozen pizza places never has to think about.
Nowhere else to call.
Casey’s customers are just trying to get home before midnight with dinner already handled.
For small-town Missouri, December 31 pizza means Casey’s, or it means nothing.
Casey’s Rewards Pays in Pizza
More than 5 million people belong to Casey’s Rewards, a total the program passed within its first two years.
Members earn double points on every pizza purchase.
Stack up ten pizzas, and the app hands over a free large pizza.
That math adds up fast.
Casey’s has given away close to $12 million worth of free pizza through the program so far.
A shopper who has never downloaded the app just sees regular menu prices.
A member sees the math working in their favor with every slice.
Points also convert to fuel discounts or a donation to a local school, not just pizza.
Casey’s Sticks to Small Towns
Casey’s puts roughly two-thirds of its stores in towns of 20,000 people or fewer, a pattern that shapes daily life across rural Missouri.
No big-box alternative nearby.
In many small Missouri towns, Casey’s is the only store for miles, doubling as the gas station, the grocery run, and the pizza counter all at once.
For dozens of these towns, it’s the whole Saturday errand list under one roof.
Casey’s has grown its total store count by more than 40% over the last decade.
Rural Missouri received a good share of those new builds.
Casey’s Almost Changed Hands Twice
Casey’s turned down two takeover attempts in 2010, and either one could have erased the name Missourians know from small-town intersections.
Alimentation Couche-Tard, the company behind Circle K, offered $38.50 a share that September.
7-Eleven came in higher that November, offering as much as $43 a share, and Casey’s said no again.
Close call.
Casey’s stock had risen more than a third between April and October that year as investors bet on a sale.
It fell back within days once the 7-Eleven talks ended.
Casey’s management said the offer “didn’t reflect the value of the company.”
Missourians kept pulling up to the same gas station and pizza counter instead of a new one wearing someone else’s logo.
Psst! How well do your habits match a Missouri Casey’s regular? Check off what’s true and see where you land.
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Missouri driving directions still lean on old farm-to-market road letters, like Route Z or Route Y, letter-named local roads distinct from numbered highways.
Newcomers nod along until they’re lost, while lifelong residents never think twice about the system.
8 Things Missourians Do That Confuse Everyone Who Moves There
