Convenience stores to the rescue!

Forget all the bad wine news – convenience store wine sales are surging

You know all that gloom and doom in the wine business?

Forget about it.

Wine sales at convenience stores surged in 2020, the fourth consecutive year of increases at 7-Eleven, QuikTrip, and the like. Wine sales, as a percentage of store revenue, increased some 20 points, as did average wine sales per store. Plus, more stores than ever sold wine, about 54 percent.

This is impressive enough. But given that overall wine sales remained flat in 2020, despite the pandemic surge, it’s even more impressive. So what’s going on?

First, since restaurants and bars were closed, we bought more wine at convenience stores, says Jeff Lenard, vice president, Strategic Industry Initiatives, for the National Association of Convenience Stores. The numbers come from the trade group’s 2020 “State of the Industry Report.” Plus, says, Lenard, the pandemic changed shopping behavior – so that buying wine at a convenience store didn’t seem nearly so odd.

Which, of course, we’ve seen before. The convenience store business has noticed this change; a recent trade magazine story urged store operators to stock more rose and canned wine, and to consider adding biodynamic and natural wine. Most wine shops don’t even carry much of the latter two. Also worth noting: A nearby  7-Eleven is selling Kendall Jackson chardonnay and Nobilo sauvignon blanc for the same price as several neighborhood supermarkets. When’s the last time a convenience store cared about competitive pricing?

In fact, wine’s growth, though starting from a smaller base, showed more or less the same percentage increases as beer. Which, given the way the convenience store business works, is amazing.

And the best news? “It’s too early to predict where things will go in 2021,” says Lenard, “but so far sales are strong, with stores holding on to some of the gains from changes in behavior in 2020, plus increasing sales from the regular customers returning to everyday life.”

Which, for wine, is even more amazing. Who knew 7-Eleven could be the wine business’ savior?

Photo: “IMG00003.jpg” by patientfox is licensed under CC BY 2.0

More about convenience store wine sales:
• Convenience store wine sales 2019
• Jerry Jones and 7-Eleven wine
• Convenience store wine sales 2018