What: Convenience store should have profited from the pandemic. But only some did. Others have been facing competition.

Why it is important: Convenience is very attractive to customers. But the idea of convenience is evolving. Formats other than classic “convenience stores” can offer convenient shopping and attract customers. Imagine a “convenient” department store.

Although many convenient stores have benefited from the crisis. Some have not.

Thus sales have grown in South Korea and in Mexico, but in Japan, home to the three biggest convenience store chains, they have been in decline. Rivals (such as supermarkets) are offering the same goods for less, as well as delivery, often to customers’ home. Deliveroo is being used in the UK, DoorDash the US delivery app has opened its own virtual DashMart.

Wawa also from the US has started drive-through stores. Others are reporting a surge in deliveries, including US 7-Eleven. It shows that convenience is less a store format and more a customer service which other formats can emulate … including department stores.

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