Whether it’s a late-night snack, a gallon of milk you forgot to buy, or a quick fill-up for a road trip, convenience stores have become an essential part of our everyday lives. In recent years, the convenience store industry has seen remarkable growth, both in number and influence.
How often do you shop at a convenience store? Let me know in the comment section below!
History of the convenience store
The concept of the modern convenience store originated in the early 20th century, with the Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas, credited with its development in 1927. They capitalized on the need for accessible shopping outside of traditional hours by offering basic grocery items at their ice manufacturing locations. This evolved into the widely recognized 7-Eleven chain, which expanded significantly in the 1950s and beyond.
What is a convenience store?
NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) defines a convenience store as a retail business that provides the public with a convenient location to quickly purchase a wide variety of consumable products and services, generally food and gasoline.
Convenience stores usually have the following general characteristics:
– Typically less than 5,000 square feet.
– Off-street parking and/or convenient pedestrian access.
– Extended hours of operation, with many open 24 hours, seven days a week.
– Product mix includes grocery type items and also includes items from the following groups: beverages, snacks, and tobacco.
There are 152,255 convenience stores operating in the United States. The number of convenience stores that sell fuel is 121,852, an increase of 1,791 since 2024. Overall, convenience stores sell approximately 80% of the fuel purchased in the United States.
Which states have the most convenience stores? Here are the top 10!
Texas
California
Florida
New York
Georgia
Ohio
North Carolina
Michigan
Pennsylvania
Illinois
Top selling products
What do you think are the top regular and impulse purchases in convenience stores? Let’s take a look at this list of some of the top selling products from cstorepos.com.
Bottled Water and Soft Drinks – popular impulse purchases
Snack Bars and Candy – convenient snacks that appeal to customers on-the-go
Cigarettes, Vapor, and Tobacco Products – often in high demand at convenience stores
Coffee Products – popular morning and afternoon pick-me-up for many customers
Basic Grocery Items – often a first stop for customers who need last minute grocery essentials
Toiletries and Personal Care Items – for travelers or customers with last minute personal care needs
Chips and Salty Snacks – popular impulse purchases in individual sizes and popular full-sized package purchases for parties
Lottery Tickets and Miscellaneous Products – state lottery games and scratch-off tickets, along with gift cards for popular retailers, restaurants, and online services for those seeking quick and easy gift options. Basic electronic accessories like phone chargers and adapter cables are also popular.
What the data shows
NielsenIQ shared some data (2024) about convenience stores that I thought you would find interesting.
Did you know:
The average convenience store shopper visits a convenience store more than three times a week.
165 million daily convenience store visits offer a prime opportunity to test new products and flavors.
Food service has overtaken cigarettes as the largest product category in the stores.
The expansion of convenience stores in the U.S. can be attributed to these factors, among others:
-They are offering a broader variety of higher-quality prepared foods, beverages and non-seasonal candy which drive sales growth and shopping trips.
-They are investing in new technology, including self-checkout, personalization and retail media to modernize their operations and improve shopper experiences.
NCP panel member info
We all usually end up in a convenience store at some point, right? Small shopping trips are a big deal to NCP. Even though you may only pick up a few items during these types of trips, please be sure to scan those purchases.
If an item you purchased is consumed before you get home, scan it right away if you’re using the NCPMobile App or save the packaging and scan the barcode later if you use NCP’s handheld scanner.
As mentioned earlier, a large percentage of convenience stores sell fuel. You can report your gasoline purchases using the Gasoline category listing in the Non-Barcoded Items list in the NCPMobile App. Select this category for any gasoline purchases (including diesel and other fuels) made from a pump at a gas/service station, as well as gas pumped into a container. (Do not use this listing to report purchases of kerosene, propane, home heating oil, etc.)
Select “Gas Trip Only” if you only purchased gas during a trip to the gas/service station.
Select “Gas With Purchase” when gasoline is purchased along with other items from the gas station’s convenience store such as beverages, snacks, candy, etc. Only enter the total price paid for the fuel in this category listing. For the other items purchased, please scan the UPC barcode on the items as you normally would to report those purchases.
(Note: If you use NCP’s handheld scanner, you would report gas purchases using the Barcode Reference Booklet.)
Regards,
Taylor
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