Houston, TX―The recession may have been the cause of several quarters’ decline in purchase incidence at convenience stores, but consumers have returned to buying a larger variety of products from the stores in the second quarter of 2009, according to The NPD Group’s Convenience Store Monitor. The report noted increases in purchases of bottle/can soda and frozen/slushy drinks by 0.7% compared to second quarter 2008. During that time period, beverage purchase incidence increased overall, except for bottled water, along with gains for candy/gum (+0.4%), packaged sweet goods (+0.3%) and packaged sandwiches (+0.2%).
Other categories didn’t fare so well at convenience stores. Sales declines were noted in the second quarter compared to last year in bottled water (-0.8%), chips/pretzels (-0.6%), juice/juice drinks (-0.6%), milk
(-0.5%) and beer (-0.2%).
“With gasoline prices below last year's historic highs, many consumers are beginning to feel the freedom to pick up a single serve beverage or a snack,” says David Portalatin, NPD industry analyst. “In some cases, consumers may look at these items as an inexpensive meal replacement.”
