The U.S. c-store industry is growing positively at such a time when all other industries of the world are facing the downturn, the report said. An increasing working [image-nocss] population, which leads to busy lifestyles, is calling for people to save time in everything. Besides conserving time, c-stores provide convenience in shopping. With the increasing commuting and travel time, many consumers are looking for ways to minimize the effect of this commuting on their leisure time by multi-tasking while traveling. Hence, c-stores have benefited a lot as consumers are increasingly willing to shop, eat and drink while on the go.
The report further anticipates that the working population in the United States will cross the 150 million mark by 2012. Thus, as the working population will increase, it definitely raises the demand for c-stores.According to the report, despite the economic slowdown and recession in the country, the overall sales of the c-store industry registered an impressive growth of more than 8% in 2008 over the previous year, constituting around 14% of the total retail sales in the United States, and this share is expected to rise in future.
The total U.S. c-store sales in the US include motor fuel sales and in-store sales. Motor fuel sales made up for 72.1% whereas in-store sales accounted for approx 27.9% in total c-store sales in 2008. The c-store industry is dominated by single store business or franchise. At regional level, Southern U.S. states continue to lead the c-store industry.
Overall c-store sales are expected to grow substantially at a CAGR of around 5% during the forecast period of 2009 to 2013 in the United States.
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