8 Ways COVID-19 Has Altered the Convenience and Grocery Industries

In March 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. Five years later, many changes the convenience and grocery industries implemented during that time have stuck. 

From how retailers use technology to who they hire to what they sell, here’s eight ways the c-store and grocery industries have changed since the pandemic. 

This story is a collaboration between CSP and its sister publication Supermarket News.

Since the first self-checkout machines were introduced in 1986 at Kroger stores in Atlanta, convenience- and grocery-store retailers have debated many aspects of self-checkout: Does it cause more frustration than convenience? Does it help or hurt staffing and labor? Does it increase shrink?

While it’s still an area of disagreement, the pandemic changed the self-checkout landscape.

In 2021, among 500 sampled self-checkout users, 151 indicated that they used the service more frequently than before the pandemic, according to a study published by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health titled Does COVID-19 promote self-service usage among modern shoppers? More than half, 293, said they maintained the usage frequency of self-collection service during the pandemic, and 53 showed a declining interest in using the service.

The result suggests that the pandemic promoted the usage of self-collection service to a considerable extent. However, the majority of users’ behavioral patterns remain unchanged.

There are also generational differences in self-checkout preferences.

Gen Z and Millennial grocery shoppers are the biggest adopters of self-checkout, according to the 2025 Commerce Experience Report. Most Gen Z shoppers, 63%, (ages 18 to 29) prefer self-checkout, as do 45% of Millennial shoppers (ages 30 to 44).

The report also found that more than one-third of shoppers (36%) prefer self-checkout because it has shorter lines, while 43% prefer to bag their items. Sixty percent of shoppers who do not frequent self-checkout would be more inclined to do so if grocery stores made it easier to check out with more than 15 items.

Convenience-store chains such as 7-Eleven, Circle K, Wawa, Sheetz and many more, have implemented self-checkout. Grocery-store chains that offer self-checkout include Walmart, Kroger, Target, Costco, Safeway, Albertsons, Meijer, Publix and more.

– Rachel Gignac, CSP

Perhaps the most obvious change for consumers over the last five years is the rise of online shopping. So-called omnichannel customers no longer rely solely on the in-store experience, and their numbers exploded during the era of stay-at-home orders. 

By the end of the first year of the pandemic, omnichannel shoppers in the U.S. had grown by 50%, according to research by NielsenIQ. The survey, conducted between September 2019 and September 2020, showed that shoppers who considered themselves “heavy” or “exclusive” omnichannel shoppers spiked by 133%.

Nonfood products took an early lead in online shopping, according to NielsenIQ, with 85% of pet supplies purchased online, 79% of vitamins, and 78% of facial skin care products. 

That spike in sales peaked in 2021, and have either declined, plateaued, or shown marginal growth ever since, according to data analytics firms Brick Meets Click and Mercatus. Their monthly eGrocery Sales report revealed by March 2024, the monthly spend for online orders had reached $8 billion. 

“These monthly results are an improvement over March 2023, when total monthly eGrocery sales had fallen 8% on a year-over-year basis. Current sales are 23% above the levels posted in March 2020, the initial month of the pandemic in the U.S.,” the report noted. 

Also the three methods of fulfillment—pickup, delivery, and ship-to-home—were growing, cresting or declining at different rates, according to the report. 

“In terms of the specific methods customers use to receive those online orders, ship-to-home crested in March 2020, pickup crested in 2021, and delivery did so in 2022,” Brick Meets Click and Mercatus reported in March 2023, showing that ship-to-home was up 5.9% year over year, pickup remained flat, and delivery had dipped by 2.6%. 

Online grocery sales began to pick up steam again in 2024, surging 17.7% year over year in the second half of the year compared to a timid 0.3% increase in the first half. That’s largely due to “aggressive promotion of annual subscriptions or memberships that began in mid-year and have continued off and on since then,” the Brick Meets Click/Mercatus report noted in January. 

“While subscriptions and memberships aren’t new, the deep discounts were new, and they resonated with customers by offering the opportunity for significant savings,” said David Bishop, partner at Brick Meets Click. “As a result, customers are more vested in their provider-of-choice, motivating many to place more orders which helps those providers to gain a larger share of the grocery wallet and improve engagement and retention rates.”

–Tim Inklebarger, SN

Consumer packaged goods (CPGs) companies played an essential role for grocery and convenience stores during COVID-19. Moving past the initial challenges of the last few years, the CPG industry continues to play a vital role in powering the U.S. economy. The CPG industry contributes $2.5 trillion to U.S. GDP and supports 22.3 million American jobs, according to the Consumer Brands Association.

Five years post pandemic, challenges continue for CPGs.

Topping the concern for CPGs in 2025 is the Trump administration’s planned tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. 

“Despite sourcing the vast majority of ingredients and inputs from U.S. farms and domestic suppliers, CPG companies depend on global supply chains for certain imports due to unique growing conditions and other limiting factors around the world,” said Thomas Madrecki, vice president of campaigns and special projects at Consumer Brands Association.

The CPG segment continues to face headwinds as consumer spending patterns shift and economic pressures mount, global management consulting firm Bain & Co., Boston, said in its Consumer Products Report published Feb. 12.

“The challenging dynamics of 2024 have placed disproportionate pressure on the biggest CPGs,” said Richard Webster, head of global Consumer Products practice at Bain & Co. “As inflation recedes, it’s clear that the old, large-scale CPG growth model is not fully fit for the new normal that’s emerging.”

With the industry at a turning point, traditional reliance on price-driven growth is no longer enough to sustain long-term growth, Webster said.

“For those CPGs ready to embrace the opportunity, this is the time to sharpen their agendas and make strategic choices that will enable them to thrive in the generative AI era,” Webster said.

Consumer health trends such as rising concerns about ultra-processed foods and the increased uptake of GLP-1s also have the potential to create lasting disruptions in the industry, the report said.

“Consumers are becoming increasingly discerning, preferences are fragmenting, and expectations are increasing given the higher prices,” said Charlotte Apps, executive vice president of Bain’s Consumer Products practice. “As a result, insurgents and local incumbents are capturing an increasingly outsized share of growth.”

When it comes to regaining lost ground, Apps said CPGs must redefine an AI-led and technology-driven model.

“CPGs need to invest in digital capabilities, reinvent their portfolios, and embed AI across their operations,” Apps said.

– Diane Adam, CSP

Necessity is the mother of invention. During the pandemic, convenience stores began to more quickly embrace foodservice technology that requires fewer employees.

Huge labor shortages during that time expedited the use of equipment such as bean-to-cup machines that require fewer labor hours than more traditional methods.

“We didn't have people to do the jobs,” said Steve Morris, president of Retail Management Inc., St. Paul, Minnesota. “That’s when technology stepped up.”

Equipment that shifted the labor to c-store customers—or automated it altogether—accelerated during this time of labor shortage.

“Necessity was absolute,” Morris said. “We had to do the same amount of things and didn’t have the labor to do it, no matter how hard we tried, so it had to happen.”

Another example is ovens that do more. Stinker Stores, Boise, Idaho, has increased its use of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based Alto-Shaam’s H4H Multi-Cook Oven.

“It has four independent chambers, so it’s almost like four different ovens because each chamber has its own time, temperature and fan settings,” said Billy Colemire, former vice president-marketing and brand, who has since left the company. “It’s super easy to use.”

–Chuck Ulie, CSP

The disruption to the supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic had lasting effects on the convenience and grocery industries. From labor investments to technology upgrades, retailers made changes to combat supply shortages that stuck, in many cases, and proved the resiliency of the convenience and supermarket channels.

In 2020, factories and ports across the globe shut down or curtailed their operations to prevent the spread of illness, according to a Federal Trade Commission staff report published in March 2024 titled “Feeding America in a Time of Crisis: The United States Grocery Supply Chain and the COVID-19  Pandemic.”

“In turn, many of the key inputs needed to keep our economy running smoothly suddenly became scarce, causing production delays, product unavailability and sudden price spikes,” the report said. “In effect, large sectors of our economy underwent a sudden stress test of their resilience and flexibility.”

This “stress test” proved convenience stores’ resiliency—in 2021, total in-store c-store sales increased to a record $277.9 billion, according to NACS State of the Industry data. It also caused c-store distributors to better anticipate challenges to the supply chain, whether those challenges were spurred by a global pandemic, natural disaster or labor shortages.

As Allison Mason, associate manager of corporate communications for The Hershey Co., put it in 2023 when talking to CSP Daily News, “The challenges still exist. What we’ve gotten better at is anticipating the challenges and having a plan in place to work through them when they happen.” 

Part of that plan to address supply chain challenges involved investing in labor and technology to ensure that operations ran smoothly—and many of those changes stuck.

Distributors like McLane and Core-Mark expanded online ordering systems, upped their delivery tracking capabilities to improve transparency to retailers to avoid out-of-stocks, launched hand-held tracking of every truck to allow retailers to track the timing of their deliveries and more.

Convenience stores also rationalized SKUs during the pandemic and leaned into private-label brands. The focus, for retailers and CPG suppliers, turned to taking care of the core items, and leaning into innovation that was sure to win, rather than trying everything.

While some of that mindset has stuck, a quick walk on the NACS Show floor in 2024 showed that innovation has ramped up since the pandemic, with major CPG companies getting back to having a handful of new items being released each year.

Perhaps the pandemic helped spur private-label products, though, as a way for retailers to better manage inventory and costs for price-conscious consumers. 2024 was the most successful year for private-label brands, according to the Private Label Manufacturer Association’s 2025 Private Label Report, which was released on Feb. 4.

– Hannah Hammond, CSP

Inflation has been a lasting product of the pandemic, with consumers leaning into strategies to stretch their dollars. And, with its affordability and perceived value, private label has boomed under this extended inflationary period. 

Starting in 2021, private label has seen back-to-back years of record growth. In 2021, sales were $199 billion. Private brand dollar share that year was 17.7%, while unit share came in at 19.6%. By 2024, own-brand sales had grown to $271 billion with no sign of slowing. 

In 2021, the year private label started experiencing growth, PLMA released a report noting that own brands still accounted for about one out of every four CPG items sold and for roughly one in every $5 spent, “despite sweeping changes brought by the coronavirus crisis.”

And grocers have since capitalized on the trend, with a special emphasis on “value.” In the last five years, Amazon launched Amazon Saver, its budget-friendly own brand line. Walmart launched its value-focused private-label line Bettergoods. Delivery platform Gopuff even got into the game with its “Basically” line of snacks, water and home essentials.

What have we learned about private label since the pandemic? It’s part of what we’ve learned about shopper habits more generally. Price is huge and frequently trumps loyalty for consumers. Shoppers—even the ones with money—are giving their dollars to Walmart in order to capitalize on low prices. Many consumers (even ones who participate in loyalty programs) shop around at multiple grocers to find the best deals. 

As early as 2020, Supermarket News was writing about how “the food retail war will be fought increasingly by private brands in a post-COVID world…bringing with it new pressures on retailers to assess the effectiveness of their brands versus one another—and not just the national brand competitors alongside them on the shelf.” So looking ahead: grocers should still heed that advice. They are competing, not just with CPG for a share of stomach, but with private label brands from other grocers as well. 

– Chloe Riley, SN 

The early days of the COVID-19 pandemic was especially hard on grocery workers. Many contracted the virus, and hundreds died despite all the efforts made to ensure worker safety.

Worker safety was essential from the beginning. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 190 grocery workers died from COVID-19, while over 11,500 were affected in the first 100 days of the pandemic.

Grocery workers were labeled essential front-line workers and placed at the center of a beehive of controversy, staff limitations and the highly contagious virus.

Mask mandates, social distancing and patron limits in stores aimed to control the environment. But not everyone followed the rules. Anti-maskers often shopped the aisles, and stores frequently ignored capacity restrictions. According to an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, workers had little power to enforce any of the COVID-19 guidelines.

Maria Hernandez, who worked at a Ralph’s store in the Los Angeles area, told the Los Angeles Times that policies were implemented but were “unevenly” enforced. Customers either dropped their masks below their noses or didn’t wear them at all, stores were often crowded and shopping carts and checkout areas were frequently not sanitized according to the guidelines. Store managers were supposed to enforce the rules, but many feared customer backlash.

The pandemic created an immediate need for an influx of grocery workers, and many retailers brought back temporary or seasonal workers to fill the gap, with some grocers even offering sign-on bonuses to attract new employees. Stores also expanded roles to include tasks like managing curbside pickup, online orders and sanitation duties.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to influence labor issues, particularly concerning unions and new contracts. Many grocery stores faced labor shortages due to illness, quarantines and early retirements. As a result, some grocery retailers increased wages, offered hazard pay during the height of the pandemic, and introduced additional benefits like mental health support. 

Today, labor negotiations focus on increasing pay and benefits. Since the pandemic, grocery workers have realized their essential roles and the risks they took to keep stores running, and now they seek to see the true fruits of their labor. Some of the larger grocery chains have reported record profits in the wake of the pandemic, and now workers say they want their share. Recently, workers at King Soopers and City Market in Colorado and New Seasons Market in the Portland, Oregon, area have striked, citing the need for more staff, along with better wages and benefits. 

Some states passed temporary laws offering paid leave and hazard pay to grocery workers during the pandemic, but few of these measures became permanent. California passed a law providing additional paid sick leave to workers in certain industries, including grocery workers, who were affected by COVID-19, whether they were sick or had to care for someone who was. Hawaii, Colorado, Oregon, New York and Washington also passed similar measures. 

– Bill Wilson, SN

COVID-19 left a permanent mark on the convenience-store industry and its front-line workers. The pandemic couldn’t completely erase or hinder the c-store channel’s “last-mile” status that allowed it to continue serving the needs of drivers, commuters and people who were not able to stay at home and quarantine.

Although hiring, staffing and turnover were major issues exacerbated by the pandemic—they always have been difficulties and still are for retail—COVID allowed convenience stores to demonstrate that they were essential businesses and that c-store employees were essential workers, the retail “first responders” in the crisis. That official designation, along with added services designed to cope with the situation, such as online ordering, curbside service and delivery, helped keep the channel viable despite low traffic levels, low inventory levels and low staff levels caused by health concerns over contracting the virus.

Social distancing, mask mandates and customer resistance also became the new customer service stress points that employees had to learn how to cope with.

Gas stations, along with motor vehicle and parts dealers and miscellaneous store retailers, all of which experienced employment growth from 2017 to 2019, combined to make up just over one-quarter of retail sector employment loss between 2019 and 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Stay-at-home orders and travel limitations caused many consumers to reduce expenditures on gas, automotive maintenance and repair and to hold off on new car purchases, which contributed to the large cyclical decline in employment.

Other factors included workers rethinking their employment options, including what has come to be known as “The Great Resignation,” referring to the large numbers of retail, foodservice, hospitality and other workers who quit their jobs because of the pandemic, some with the help of government stimulus payments. At the same time, some retailers instated hazard pay to reward workers who stayed on the job.

The retail sector lost almost 800,000 jobs during 2020, compared with about 200,000 jobs from 2017 to 2019, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The industry has only recently returned to pre-pandemic staffing levels.

Meanwhile, advancements in supply, hand-held inventory management, shelf labeling, self-checkout and other technology—many coincidental with the pandemic but nonetheless effective to meet the needs of the moment—have allowed retailers to operate with leaner staffs, but also have allowed employees to be more efficient and customer-service focused.

From the perspective of 2025, the convenience-store channel and its workers appear to have weathered the COVID storm better than most retail sectors and have absorbed the economic and operational lessons necessary to survive. 

– Greg Lindenberg, CSP