Great Britain: convenience store category sales share 2022

In 2022, tobacco and e-cigarettes attributed to over one fifth of convenience store sales, followed by alcohol which, accounted for 15.9 percent of convenience store sales. The smallest contributors to British convenience store sales were the product categories non-food at 1.1 percent and hot food and drinks to go at 0.8 percent.

Convenience stores

Convenience stores are small retail businesses which often have high prices, a limited number of covered product categories and commonly a limited selection of products in these categories. The shops are often opened for longer hours. With the UK’s Sunday trading act the number of bigger stores with longer opening hours has increased. Their competition has cut into the presence of convenience stores.

Recent developments on the market

In the past years, large chains such as Sainsbury’s have tried to capitalize on the trend among consumers towards shorter and more frequent shopping trips. The number of Sainsbury's stores that were classified as convenience reached 814 in 2023, a slight increase on the previous year. Market leader Tesco had almost 2,000 convenience stores across the UK in the same year.