Overview
Bank of America analysts found that, for the four weeks ended August 8, dollar sales at convenience stores underperformed broader retail channels across most product categories. The bank highlighted category-level performance across nicotine, beverage, and food segments and compared convenience store growth to Nielsen all-channel data, which covers all retail outlets plus club stores and Amazon first-party sales.
Nicotine category details
Total nicotine dollar sales at convenience stores declined 2.8% year-over-year during the referenced period, a larger drop than the 2.2% year-over-year decline recorded in the previous four-week period. Within that category, cigarette sales were down 3.5%, cigars fell 6.2%, and vapor products dropped 9.9%. By contrast, oral tobacco was the only nicotine subcategory to post growth, with sales rising 4.7% year-over-year. On a month-over-month basis, total nicotine sales at convenience stores decreased 1.2%.
Beverage performance
Beverage categories produced a mixed picture, with most subcategories improving relative to the prior four-week period. Energy drinks led gains with a 5.3% year-over-year increase, and sports drinks were up 0.8%. Other beverage segments moved lower: carbonated soft drinks declined 3.7%, juices fell 2.3%, bottled water dropped 3.3%, and the combined category of beer, flavored malt beverages, cider, and seltzer decreased 5.4%.
Food and snack trends
Among food categories, chocolate outperformed other snack segments despite posting a year-over-year decline of 2.0%. Salty snacks fell 3.1%, while non-chocolate snack products experienced the largest drop, declining 6.1% year-over-year.
Comparison versus all-channel retail and bank interpretation
Bank of America compared convenience store sales growth to Nielsen all-channel data across the selected categories and found convenience stores lagged the broader retail aggregate, which includes all retail outlets plus club stores such as Costco and Amazon first-party sales. The bank attributed the gap to consumers making more selective purchasing decisions for items that are not needed immediately. The report also noted that fuel prices continued to ease modestly on a week-over-week basis during the period.
Context and limitations
The analysis is limited to the data and categories cited for the four-week period ending August 8. The bank's explanation for the gap between convenience store growth and all-channel performance is presented as the bank's attribution; the report does not offer causal proof beyond that interpretation.