Convenience Store Sales Challenged in First Half of 2025
Retailers in the convenience store channel continue to face challenges in the current economic climate, as key product categories have seen sales declines through the first six months of 2025, according to the 2025 Midyear Report Card from Convenience Store News.
Core food and beverage categories such as beer and malt beverages (-2.0%), candy (-1.7%), salty snacks (-4.3%), and edible grocery (-2.4%) were all down in the first half. On the positive side, packaged beverages were up 1.9% and health and beauty care grew 2.3%. All figures are in comparison to figures from the first half of 2024.
In the salty snack category, the 4.3% decline (-5.8% in units) was the result of sales decreases across nine product categories that have long been staples on convenience store shelves. Potato chips saw the biggest declines, down 6.8%, with packaged ready-to-eat popcorn (-6.4%) and tortilla/corn chips (-5.3%) being other categories that had a sales drop of more than 5%.
Candy sales were down in dollars and units (-6.5%), but one of the seven categories — novelties — showed growth of 27.8% in dollars and 23.3% in units. Also of note, breath mint sales (+0.2%) and chocolate bars/packs (+0.6%) saw dollar growth, but unit declines of 6.9% and 4.1% respectively, indicating higher prices may have hurt products moving off shelves.
Beer and malt beverages had a few silver linings in the category, driven largely by nonalcoholic beer, which grew 22.3% in dollars and 99.8% in unit volume. Additionally, premium plus/super premium products were up 2.6% in dollar sales and 2.4% in unit volume, outpacing budget/value products that were down 2% in dollar sales and down 4.4% in unit volume.
Alcoholic cider (+1.8% in dollars and +2.5% in units) and alcoholic seltzer (+0.3% in dollars and +3.8% in units) were the other two product segments in beer and malt beverages out of the 11 tracked in the study that saw growth in dollars and units. Malt liquor saw the biggest declines in dollar sales (-6.1%) and unit volume (-9.6%).
In the packaged beverages category, all but two of the nine product categories tracked reported declines in dollar and/or unit sales. Energy drinks were up 8.9% in dollars and 6.6% in units, while enhanced water was up 3.2% in dollars and a modest 0.5% in units. The largest decline was seen in ready-to-drink coffee, down 7.4% in dollars and 6.6% in units.
In health and beauty care, the only product category reporting growth in dollars and units was vitamins/supplements, which grew 9.5% in dollars and 4.9% in units.
Editor’s note: Convenience Store News is a sister publication of Store Brands.
