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NACS Online > News & Media Center > Fact Sheets > Convenience Stores Offer More Convenience

Industry Resources 
Convenience Stores Offer More Convenience 
February 1, 2008 

Convenience stores invented convenience with the opening of the first convenience store in 1927, and continue to redefine it as more time-starved consumers seek out convenience in all of its definitions -- whether convenient location, extended hours of operation, one-stop shopping or fast transactions.

Convenience stores are changing the nature of convenience.

  • Convenience stores have expanded their offerings over the last few years, with stores become part supermarket, gas station, restaurant and even bank or drugstore -- one-stop shopping spots.
  • Convenience stores have an unmatched speed of transaction: the average time it takes a customer to walk in, purchase an item and depart is between 3 to 4 minutes. Here's the breakdown: 35 seconds to walk from the car to the store, 71 seconds to select item(s), 42 seconds to wait in line to pay, 21 seconds to pay and 44 seconds to leave store (Source: NACS' 2002 Speed Metrics Research).
  • Customers score convenience stores high on convenience, rating stores as a 8.3 (on a 1-10 scale). Stores rated a 9.1 on convenience of location, 8.4 on ability to get in and get out quickly and 7.7 on availability of parking (Source: NACS 2003 Customer Satisfaction Benchmark Update Report).
  • Consumers are embracing convenience stores like never before. An average store selling fuel has more than 1,000 customers per day, or more than 370,000 per year. Cummulatively, the U.S. convenience store industry alone serves 137 million customers per day, and 50 billion customers every year. (NACS 2007 State of the Industry Report).
  • The convenience store industry is a destination for on-the-go meals: it now accounts for $9.3 billion in combined sales of food prepared onsite and commissary/ packaged sandwiches (Source: NACS 2007 State of the Industry report).
  • Convenience stores provide a growing number of services for customers: 92 percent have ATMs, 68 percent sell money orders and 16 percent have a carwash. A growing number are offering new services such as a drive-thru window (6 percent) or customer seating in the store (17 percent). (Source: NACS 2007 State of the Industry Index Group).
  • The use of the Internet in convenience stores continues to grow. A number of convenience stores are testing the use of Internet kiosks and WiFi for customers.
  • Pay-at-the-pump was the one of the first innovations to speed customer transactions at the pump. The latest is Mobil Speedpass, which is now used by approximately 6 million customers. This electronic payment system was first tested at St. Louis-based convenience store company Wallis Oil.

  • Self-serve is a part of most convenience stores' fueling operations. The first self-serve gas station was opened by Hoosier Petroleum Co. in 1930, but was closed by the fire marshal as being a fire hazard. The idea was reintroduced by Frank Ulrich in 1947 at the corner of Jilson and Atlantic in Los Angeles. Today it is now available in 48 states. (New Jersey and Oregon still require full-service operations – New Jersey's law was enacted in 1949; Oregon's in 1951.)