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Slurpee Day, when 7-Eleven inflicts great swaths of the population with brain freeze when it gives away free small cups of the concoction, comes only once a year on—when else?—July 11. But it’s not the only day consumers are flocking to convenience stores.
Foot traffic at convenience stores across the US increased year over year for seven straight months from February through August, according to Placer.ai data. The biggest increase was in February, up 2.5% YoY, followed by May and August, both up 2.2%.
7-Eleven’s competitors saw the most dramatic growth. In August, for example, foot traffic at 7-Eleven was slightly down (-0.8%), while Texas-based Buc-ee’s was up 11.7%, Circle K was up 9%, and Sheetz was up 7.6%.
Fare thee dwell: C-stores often sell gas, and the transactions largely are grab-and-go, but some shoppers linger. Average dwell time for the first eight months of this year was highest in Wyoming, where shoppers spent an average of 28.2 minutes in the stores, followed by Montana (21.9 minutes) and North Dakota (21.2 minutes). Placer.ai posits that the states have higher truck traffic, and that the convenience stores are part of truck stops where truckers grab a shower, too.
Massachusetts had the lowest dwell time, just 7.5 minutes per visit, for which Placer.ai offers no explanation, so we’ll offer this wicked pissah suggestion: minutemen.
The last straw: When it comes to impressive single-day foot traffic surges, the ice drink cometh.
On July 11, Slurpee Day, foot traffic at 7-Eleven was up 127.3% compared to that average for all other days in the year’s first eight months.