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While fewer Americans will be traveling this week for Thanksgiving (and presumably during December holidays), how people are moving around the country is worth monitoring—convenience stores are set to play an outsized role.
The next several weeks represents a massive upswing in mobility and retail shopping that has been rare in 2020. In May, we outlined opportunities for beverage alcohol in c-stores as a logical place for shoppers given reduction in air travel and more frequent road trips. That came to fruition over the summer and will be important this holiday season. According to AAA, 95% of Thanksgiving travel will take place by car with the number of passengers using air travel essentially reduced in half.
If there’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic has been made clear, it’s that Americans will try to stick to routines and feelings of normalcy even in a health crisis. Over and over, we saw shifts in on-premise and off-premise sales based on how and when states reopened businesses and the inevitable COVID spikes that came with the action. If many Americans are going to stick to travel plans despite surging COVID numbers, it’s another footnote for why you should be thinking outside traditional retail channels. Sign up to read more.
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Words by Bryan Roth