Competition, Discounts Slow Foodservice Growth
Foodservice sales growth continues to outpace merchandise sales growth in the convenience channel, although the gap between the two closed considerably last year, as per-store sales of foodservice grew 5.5 percent vs. 4.3 percent for merchandise — a difference of just 1.2 percentage points. The variance in 2008 was 5.0 percentage points, with foodservice sales increasing 7.7 percent per store vs. 2.7 percent for merchandise.