Convenience Store Purchase Incidence Across Most Food and Beverage Categories Increase in Second Quarter; Gas Purchases Decline

After several quarters of declines in purchase incidence across most categories, consumers returned to purchasing a larger variety of products from convenience stores in the second quarter of 2009, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company.

With gasoline prices below last year's historic highs, many consumers are beginning to feel the freedom to pick up a single serve beverage or a snack In some cases, consumers may look at these items as an inexpensive meal replacement.

Houston, Texas (Vocus/PRWEB ) October 27, 2009 -- After several quarters of declines in purchase incidence across most categories, consumers returned to purchasing a larger variety of products from convenience stores in the second quarter of 2009, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company. Bottle/can soda, frozen/slushy drinks, and other tobacco products all increased purchase incidence by +0.7 percentage points compared to second quarter 2008, according to NPD’s Convenience Store Monitor, which tracks the consumer purchasing behavior of more than 49,000 convenience store shoppers in the U.S.

NPD’s Convenience Store Monitor reports that in second quarter 2009 versus same quarter last year beverage purchase incidence overall, with the exception of bottled water, increased along with candy/gum, +0.4 percent; packaged sweet goods, +0.3 percent; other tobacco products (not cigarettes), +0.7 percent; and packaged sandwiches, +0.2 percent.

Categories posting purchase incidence declines in the second quarter compared to last year are cigarettes, -1.2 percent; bottled water, -0.8 percent; chips/pretzels, -0.6 percent; juice/juice drinks, -0.6 percent; milk,
-0.5 percent; and beer, -0.2 percent. Gas purchase incidence at convenience stores also declined, with -2.6 percent fewer consumers than in second quarter 2008 reporting gas purchases on their most recent visit.

“With gasoline prices below last year's historic highs, many consumers are beginning to feel the freedom to pick up a single serve beverage or a snack,” says David Portalatin, industry analyst for NPD’s auto unit. “In some cases, consumers may look at these items as an inexpensive meal replacement.”

About The NPD Group, Inc.
The NPD Group is the leading provider of reliable and comprehensive consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries. Today, more than 1,700 manufacturers, retailers, and service companies rely on NPD to help them drive critical business decisions at the global, national, and local market levels. NPD helps our clients to identify new business opportunities and guide product development, marketing, sales, merchandising, and other functions. Information is available for the following industry sectors: automotive, beauty, commercial technology, consumer technology, entertainment, fashion, food and beverage, foodservice, home, office supplies, software, sports, toys, and wireless. For more information, contact us, visit http://www.npd.com/, or follow us Twitter at https://twitter.com/npdgroup.

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