Aside from obvious issues of size and selection, what distinguishes the convenience store channel from its supermarket, mass merchandise, and drug store brethren? The great preponderance of customers visit C-stores either on their way to, on their way home from, or during work.
“The convenience store shopping experience is generally associated with the workday,” says Arthur Zimbalist of New York City’s Meyers Research Center, which uncovered the behavior in its ongoing study of shopping habits.
Unlike most trips to other channels, “visits to C-stores have an equal chance of being planned or on impulse,” says Zimbalist.
Less than 40 percent of C-store visits are special trips from home, or are made during “unstructured time” – “when people are just hanging out, doing nothing,” Zimbalist explains. N
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