In 2024, convenience store value sales improved across much of the world, especially in Latin America, according to the Q4 2024 NACS NIQ Global Convenience Store Industry Report.
Across 33 NIQ-measured countries included in this report, 26 delivered gains in convenience store value sales in 2024 versus 2023. Among the countries delivering growth, seven saw double-digit or higher growth, with five of those countries in Latin America and one each in Europe and the Asia Pacific region.
With extreme inflationary pressure, growth was particularly strong in Argentina (+197.7%), where average unit prices surged by 242% over the year and 164% in the fourth quarter.
“Latin America remained a growth leader, with Argentina experiencing extreme inflationary pressure leading to significant growth. Europe saw steady growth in both value and unit sales, with the Netherlands at the forefront,” said James Hunt, senior vice president of North American retail at NIQ. “The country achieved double-digit value sales growth for both the year and the quarter, primarily driven by a 30% increase in tobacco sales. This spike in tobacco sales was largely attributed to the ban on supermarkets selling tobacco products, which was implemented in July 2024.”
In the U.S., convenience store dollar sales fell 1.5% year-over-year while the remaining market dollar sales grew 2%. Excluding tobacco products, which accounted for 34% of convenience store sales but less than 1% of the remaining market sales, U.S. convenience store dollar sales fell 0.9% versus 2% growth for the remaining market.
U.S. convenience stores incurred greater inflationary pressures than the remaining market—average unit prices in convenience stores rose 4% compared to an increase of 1.4% for the remaining market. As a result, convenience store unit sales fell 5.2% compared to 0.6% growth in unit sales for the remaining market.
The top five categories delivering the best U.S. convenience store dollar sales growth in 2024 were frozen food (+11.7%), wine (+7.7%), other deli and dairy products (+6.9%), frozen dispensed beverages (+6.9%) and liquor (+6.2%). The top five categories on the “what’s not” list were hot dispensed beverages (-8.7%), fluid milk products (-7.7%), foodservice prepared onsite (-7.3%), packaged sweet snacks (-4.8%) and cigarettes (-4.6%).
“In 2024, confectionery and snacks and non-alcoholic beverages were the top growth drivers across multiple regions in Europe. In Canada, health and beauty aids and alcoholic beverages experienced significant growth. The recent approval for Ontario convenience stores to sell alcohol in early September significantly boosted both annual and quarterly sales, with liquor sales increasing by 211.1%, wine by 57.2%, and beer by 41.3% in the fourth quarter,” said Hunt.