Convenience Stores Sales are Higher Restaurants Sales are Flat

While U.S. convenience stores experienced a 15^th straight year of record in-store sales and a 4^th straight year of $10 billion-plus in pretax profits, according the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). Restaurant sales remain flat overall according to TDn2K Black Box Intelligence.

C-store sales attract 165 million customers a day -- half of the U.S. population and stores account for one in 31 dollars spent in the country. The rest of the story is that restaurant customers continue to fuel foodservice growth within the S-store sector according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

U.S. convenience stores sales overall surged 9.3% to $601.1 billion in 2017.  Put another way, one of every 30.9 dollars spent in the country was spent at a convenience store in 2017.

Meanwhile, in-store sales increased 1.7% to a record $237.0 billion. Foodservice, as a broad category that mostly includes prepared food (69% of both category sales and profits) but also commissary foods and hot, cold and frozen dispensed beverages, continues to be a key focus for growth in the convenience store channel.

Foodservice sales overall in 2017 were $53.3 billion, accounting for 22.5% of in-store sales in 2017 and 33.9% of gross profit dollars. The category also was the biggest differentiator in terms of profits: top-quartile performers had prepared food sales that were 3.6 times greater than bottom-quartile stores; coffee sales at top performers were 5.2 times greater that than those of the bottom quartile.

Convenience stores sell 23.8% of packaged beverages in the United States per Nielsen and saw a slight 0.4% sales increase in 2017. Within the category, enhanced water saw the strongest sales increase (9.1%); ready-to-drink iced teas (3.5%), alternative beverages (3.5%) and bottled water (0.6%) also posted sales increases. Mix and Match meal component bundling is the key advantage C-stores have according to Johnson.  Wonder how you can elevate your branded meals component options?

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.