Beer accounts for about 7% of all in -store sales at U.S. convenience stores. It’s also a top five in-store category, but sales growth slowed in 2023 compared to the growth seen in 2021 and 2022.
Here’s how beer subcategories performed in 2023, per NACS State of the Industry data:
- Premium: 32% of beer category sales
- Flavored Malt (FMB): Year-over-year sales growth of just 2.8%
- Imports: Double-digit sales (15.4%) and gross profit growth (21.0%)
- Popular: Dropped from 15.7% of category sales in 2022 to 14.6%
- Budget: Strong year-over-year sales growth of 11.2%
- Microbrews/Craft: Nearly 7% of category sales
- Super Premium: 5.2% of category sales
- Malt Liquor: Averaged $216 in sales per store, per month
- Non-Alcoholic: Smallest subcategory with the most growth—up nearly 26% in gross profit
You might be wondering where a few of your top sellers land among the above subcategories as the beer (or beer-like beverage) section of your cooler expands and diversifies. The updated NACS Category Definitions & Number Guide (Version 8.0) includes the new subcategories of cheladas, alcoholic seltzer, other beer, and alcoholic cider, which are reflected in NIQ syndicated data contained in the NACS State of the Industry Report®.
It probably isn’t a huge surprise that the most popular days of the week for beer sales in c-stores are Fridays and Saturdays. Heatmap data from PDI Insights Cloud shows that most of these sales happen between 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.—aka quittin’ time.
Now that we’ve recapped how beer performed in c-stores through 2023, what are some of the beer trends that took place in 2024 and could continue throughout 2025?
Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS Inc., the leading trade publisher for the United States brewing industry since 1970, shared his expertise in a recent Convenience Matters podcast.
Steinman, who has covered the beer industry for over 40 years, said that the beer industry is still in the midst of figuring out what the real trends are post Covid. “There was a bump during Covid, and now beer has suffered three straight years of decline” of about 10% across all channels, he said, with c-stores taking the brunt of the decline.
"I believe many consumers are finding it difficult to purchase as much beer as they would like,” he said. While they may not be switching to other channels or downgrading to different types of beverages, consumers could be opting for larger pack sizes or shopping less frequently.
Despite a 3.7% decline in total c-store volume for beer last year, per Circana data, Constellation Brands grew by about 4% in the c-store channel, maintaining its strong position.
“Constellation has been a leading player in the beer market for several years,” said Steinman, The company produces popular Mexican import brands Modelo, Corona and Pacifica, to name a few.
Flavored malt beverages have come a long way since Zima, which was followed up Zima Gold. Both brands were affected by what Steinman called a “boom splat”—new products that hit with a lot of force and then recede almost as quickly, he said.
Today’s FMBs like White Claw and Truly perform well in convenience stores, even though the subcategory has gone through considerable consolidation after a period of too many brands and too many SKUs with “too little growth. It just went into reverse … there wasn't enough growth to go around,” said Steinman.
Holidays Deliver Solid Sales
Beer sales are huge on the Super Bowl and other holidays throughout the year. The biggest beer selling days or weekends of the year are Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day, then Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“A trend that we began to observe more powerfully in 2024 is that the sales of beer are concentrated more than ever on those holiday weekends. So sales can still be very good on those holiday weekends compared to a year ago, even if the category as a whole is down slightly,” but the weeks that are not the holiday weeks have become soft, said Steinman.
“It's a powerful trend that I became more aware of in the second half of last year. It was pretty pronounced,” he said.
Find out more about how beer is performing in convenience stores during the NACS State of the Industry Summit session “In-Store Performance Lessons From 2024” with Andrew Baill, senior manager of customer insights and strategy at Wawa.