American convenience stores hit a record $859.8 billion in sales in 2023, of which $327.6 billion were from in-store sales.
The data, released at the NACS State of the Industry Summit, showed that convenience store fuel sales accounted for 67.3 per cent of revenues, but only 38.6 per cent of profits for the convenience store industry.
Total industry foodservice sales represented 26.9 per cent of in-store sales, up 13 percentage points in 2023, while profits from foodservice represented 37.3 per cent of total in-store profits.
The prepared food category grew 12.2 per cent to $51,500 per store per month, making it the number one category for in-store sales. Other foodservice categories in the top 10 were hot dispensed beverages, cold dispensed beverages, and commissary items.
The average American convenience store had 45,312 transactions per month in 2023, or 1,491 per day, which is a 0.4 per cent decrease from the year prior.
Outside the continued growth of foodservice, two additional factors helped push in-store sales higher, these were a decrease in other brick and mortar retail channels alongside a 1.5 per cent increase in c-store count growth.
The second, is that inflationary pressures, while lessened from 2022, impacted prices with the consumer price index at 5.7 per cent for 2023. Still, in-store sales showed real growth beyond store count and inflation.
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