Beverage purchases at convenience stores are following patterns imposed across the food & beverage industry by the pandemic, according to a report from Koupon Media.
Overall beverage sales are down 3% by dollar volume and 9% by unit volume. The biggest decline came at c-store fountains, with fountain drinks down 25%, coffee down 40% and overall fountain traffic down 11%, according to the Koupon report.
On the other hand, foot traffic for bottled drinks have fully recovered from their slump in the pandemic, and overall beverage traffic has increased 53% since early April. In individual categories, the biggest growers among bottled beverages were kombucha, up 15%; juices, up 11%, and coffee, 3%.
As they are elsewhere, consumers are going for larger unit sizes in c-store beverages. Single-serve continues to dominate, with an 85% share in bottled soda, but sales were down 9%. Multi-pack sales increased, with 12-packs up 50% and six-packs up 18%.
