Convenience Store Wine Is Actually Good Now

The retailer that sells the second-most Rombauer in southwestern Washington State is not a fine wine shop, big box discounter or specialty grocer. It’s a small chain of convenience stores.

“They can drive somewhere and spend 20 minutes looking for a bottle of wine, or they can come into one of our stores and be out in three minutes,” says Don Rhoads, president of The Convenience Group, whose six Minit Mart stores and two franchise locations in the Pacific Northwest sell all of that Rombauer. “So we give them what they’re looking for—a convenience-driven proposition. And it’s a winner for us.”

Welcome to the brave new world of convenience store wine sales, where almost everything that used to be true isn’t. Not only are customers younger, but they’re buying something other than cheap, jug-sized boxes of sweet pink wine. In addition to $45 bottles of Rombauer Chardonnay, they’re picking up $25 bottles of Meomi Pinot Noir and $18 bottles of Pizzolatto Prosecco. They’ve been doing it for at least a decade, even before the pandemic boosted wine sales in local retailers.

In fact, wine sales in “c-stores” (as they’re known in the trade) are one of the few bright spots in the current wine gloom and doom. That was noted as such in this year’s Silicon Valley Bank wine report, which otherwise predicted several more years—at least—of flat sales and sagging demand. Meanwhile, SipSource, which tracks wholesaler sales to retailers and restaurants, reports that convenience is the only channel that’s showing growth in wine.

“There’s been a shift in how people shop for wine,” says Joe Hamza, the chief operating officer for Nouria, which owns and operates 175 convenience stores throughout New England, as well as some five dozen Golden Nozzle car washes and a wholesale fuels business. “Younger consumers—millennials and Gen Z—don’t think twice about picking up a $20 bottle from a c-store, something their parents or grandparents might have hesitated to do.”

C-Store Wine Isn’t Just Bottom-of-the-Barrel Stuff

Yes, convenience store sales are still dominated by inexpensive wines—but not the way they once were. For one thing, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores, total sales continue to rise, up 16% between 2022 and 2023. This points to more expensive wine being sold. 

Another key, according to the 2023 Wine Market Council Benchmark study, is the age of people who shop for wine at c-stores. Only 20% of Baby Boomer wine drinkers have bought wine at a convenience store, while a whopping 73% of Gen Z wine drinkers have (and 63% of millennials.)

The study also found that not only do convenience store wine shoppers tend to skew younger, but they include higher proportions of African-American and Hispanic shoppers: two groups that the wine industry has only recently started making an effort to include. 

“Younger shoppers are informed shoppers,” says Hamza. “[They’re] checking reviews on apps like Vivino, looking up ratings and already knowing which wines they like. If they spot a familiar, high-rated brand while stopping for snacks or gas, they’re much more likely to make that purchase.”

More Inventory, More Bubbly and More Convenient 

So, what has driven this growth among younger consumers?

For one, more convenience stores are selling wine, something that started just before the pandemic. Around 70% of convenience stores in the U.S. now sell wine, up from less than half in 2018. That’s especially noteworthy since many states, including New York, don’t allow c-store wine sales.

There’s also more wine on c-store shelves. A Minit Mart inventory runs 200 to 400 SKUs, for example, compared to the smattering of national brands that it carried before putting more emphasis on wine several years ago. The Nouria stores run more than 200.