A Convenience Store News Staff Report
COVID Casts
a Shadow Over Outlook
Pandemic worries haunt the c-store industry, affecting expectations for the year ahead.
A year ago, convenience store retailers and their supplier and distributor partners were mostly upbeat about business prospects for 2020. If only they could have foreseen the gargantuan business disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit hard in the United States around the beginning of March and continues to wreak havoc today. Given the uncertainty around when the pandemic will ease, most c-store retailers are on the fence regarding their overall business outlook for 2021, albeit considerably less optimistic than they were one year ago. Meanwhile, more than half of suppliers/distributors are leaning positive, but this too has dropped compared to last year. Here, we present exclusive data and analysis from our 19th annual Forecast Study detailing the highs and lows projected for the industry in the year ahead.
55%
30%
4%
45%
21%
19%
38%
32%
6%
36%
51%
2%
36%
30%
13%
32%
55%
4%
30%
49%
11%
28%
38%
6%
28%
28%
9%
26%
51%
6%
26%
40%
13%
23%
47%
6%
17%
47%
13%
17%
40%
23%
