Convenience stores are a popular destination for a number of snack items. Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics are from NACS' 2006 State of the Industry report.

Overall trends

• The pace of snack sales in convenience stores through 2004 is expected to stay modestly ahead of the overall market for snacks, with an average growth rate of 4.4 percent for convenience stores, as compared to 3.5 percent overall growth (Source: NACS' 2000-2005 "Fact Book").
  
• The trend toward consumers snacking more and eating fewer full meals is one of the contributing factors to strong sales increases of snacks at convenience stores.
  
• An emerging mini-meal trend is yielding some new snack combinations, such as tortilla chips packaged with salsa, and corn chips packaged with chili.
  
• For on-the-go consumers, snack packages designed to fit in car cupholders -- some cars have a dozen or more cupholders -- also are leading to increased snacks sales.
  
• For classification purposes, some retailers often combine candy with salty, alternative and packaged sweets snacks into one mega-category. In 2005, these categories combined accounted for 9.6 percent of all in-store sales at convenience stores, totalling $14.5 billion.

Salty snacks

• Salty snacks accounted for 3.2 percent of all in-store sales dollars in 2005.
  
• The convenience store industry sold $4.79 billion in salty snacks in 2005, with stores averaging $34,292 in sales.
  
• Potato chips accounted for the largest amount of salty snack sales in convenience stores -- 27 percent of all salty snack sales, or more than $1.28 billion in overall sales in 2005. Tortilla/corn chips were second, accounting for 22 percent of total salty snack sales, or $1.04 billion in total sales. Nuts/seeds ($796 million in sales), crackers ($210 million in sales), pretzels ($182 million in sales),  and ready-to-eat popcorn ($197 million) also were popular.
  
• More than half (57 percent) of purchasers of salty snacks also purchase a packaged non-alcoholic beverage (Source: NPD Group).

Packaged sweet snacks

• Packaged sweet snacks (muffins, pastries, snack cakes, cookies, etc.) in convenience stores saw 2005 sales of $2.92 billion. Stores, on average, sold $20,878 per store in packaged sweet snacks.
  
• One of the contributing factors in the strong sales of packaged sweet snacks is that consumers are buying snacks to go with their morning coffee. The convenience store industry had coffee sales of $5.7 billion in 2005.
  
• Consumers buying packaged sweet snacks are five times more likely to also buy a packaged sandwich than the average convenience store customer (Source: 2003 CSP Category Management Handbook).

Alternative snacks

• Alternative snacks sales in convenience stores were $1.33 billion in 2005, averaging $9,519 per store.
  
• "Meat snacks" (such as beef jerky) are the most popular alternative snack sold in convenience stores, accounting for two-thirds of all alternative snack sales, and total sales of $872 million.
  
• Fourty-five percent of all meat snack sales are at convenience stores (Source: Snack Food Association).
  
• Health/nergy bars were the second-most-popular alternative snack sold in convenience stores, with sales of $290 million in 2005, followed by granola/fruit snacks, at $109 million.