Convenience Channel Offers Foundation for Career Growth

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The vast majority of the 19 percent of Americans who say they have worked in a convenience store also found their experience to be valuable as a career opportunity or in gaining workplace experience, according to a new consumer survey conducted by NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing.

Survey results show that 84 percent of those who worked in a c-store agree the job experience helped them develop a foundation for their careers, and more than three out of four said they would recommend working in a convenience store to others, especially as a first job.

Factors that contributed to these positive impressions include:

• 89 percent learned a lot about how to work with different people;
• 80 percent learned how businesses are run and what the challenges are;
• 70 percent appreciated that their employer offered a flexible work schedule; and
• 69 percent found that the job offered pay consistent with their experience.

Survey participants noted that the flexible hours of c-store work helped them pursue additional education. More than half (53 percent) said they worked at a c-store while in high school (24 percent) or pursuing higher education such as college (29 percent).

Consumers without c-store work experience also expressed a positive perception of the industry, particularly when tied to first jobs and gaining work experience. Nearly nine in 10 said c-stores offer great first jobs, and 86 percent said that c-stores offer great summer jobs.

Those who haven't worked at a c-store also noted the business opportunities such jobs provide:

• 74 percent said c-stores provide a positive workplace environment for workers who do not pursue a formal education;
• 73 percent said it's common for c-store workers who are invested in the growth of the company to become managers or eventually own their own stores; and
• 58 percent said c-stores offer growth for career advancement.

"The survey results show that for those who worked in convenience stores, the job offered valuable career skills and character building experience as well, especially perhaps for those who worked in stores as an early-in-life job," said NACS Vice President of Strategic Industry Initiatives Jeff Lenard. "That's why working in a convenience store has been a rite of passage for millions of people nationally — a first job for some, an early job for others and a career for still others."