CStore Decisions June 2022 Digital Edition is sponsored by Invenco .
The tobacco category’s resilience keeps paying off for c-stores even as regulatory headwinds, inflation and rising fuel costs pose challenges for tobacco sales.
Outside of pump prices, few convenience store categories are subjected to external factors as extensively and frequently as tobacco, and now synthetic nicotine, too. Sure, supply chain shortfalls affect other in-store mainstays, but these sectors aren’t submitted to bans that limit product options, the possibility of excise tax hikes or advertising restrictions.
Despite all the legislative oversight, the tobacco and nicotine category manages to rank as one of the most profitable for c-stores—cigarettes alone accounted for nearly 28% of 2020 in-store sales per the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) 2021 State of the Industry Report. Even through the pandemic’s ups
and downs, sales pushed through with other tobacco products (OTPs) coming out as the biggest winners.
Now, halfway through 2022, the focus turns toward how record-setting infl ation and fuel prices affect consumer behavior on top of new regulatory proposals. Here, we review those and other factors infl uencing each tobacco and nicotine product subcategory and what’s ahead that could impact sales performance.
