Forecast 2020: What’s the Prognosis for the C-store Industry?

Convenience channel retailers, distributors and suppliers are mostly upbeat about their business prospects in 2020, although they are a bit less enthusiastic than they were last year at this time when setting expectations for 2019.

The findings of the 18th annual Convenience Store News Forecast Study show that more than two-thirds of c-store retailers and nearly three-quarters of suppliers/wholesalers are optimistic about their companies’ business prospects for the year ahead. While those numbers are high, they represent a slightly more sober view compared to the previous year.

A year ago, 25 percent of the retailers surveyed said 2019 would be “their best year ever.” This year, only 14 percent of retailers said the same about 2020 when they were asked to choose a rating on a scale of one to five, with 1 signifying that 2020 would be “Terrible, wake me when it’s over,” and 5 denoting that “It’s going to be our best year ever.”

On the supplier/wholesaler side, nearly 74.4 percent chose a rating of 4 or 5 this year, compared to 88 percent last year. However, this year, 30.8 percent did predict that 2020 would be “their best year ever,” up from 26.8 percent a year ago.

Interestingly, despite this year’s muted optimism, the Forecast Study findings project an overall industry sales increase of 3.8 percent, slightly better than the 3.4 percent increase projected a year ago.

Read on to find out much more about what 2020 has in store for your business.