Despite the COVID-19 Crisis, Convenience Store Sales ↑... Continuous Increase Compared to the Previous Year from January to August

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] Monthly sales of convenience stores have continued to grow compared to last year.

According to the sales trend data of major retailers from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the 4th, the monthly sales of the three convenience store companies GS25, CU, and Seven Eleven from January to August this year showed continuous growth compared to the same months last year. In March and April, sales increased by 10.7% and 11.6%, respectively, resulting in an average monthly sales increase of about 6% this year.

Convenience stores maintained their sales growth trend even last year, when they were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Department store sales decreased by 6.3% in January but continuously increased afterward, recording double-digit growth rates from February to June. However, the department store sales growth rate peaked at 77.6% in March and has since slowed down.

Large discount stores showed a decrease of 11.7% in January, then turned to an increasing trend in February and March, but reverted to a decreasing trend again, showing fluctuations.

Semi-large stores (SSM), known as corporate supermarkets, experienced continuous sales declines from January to June compared to the same months last year, saw an increase of 2.8% in July for the first time, but recorded -5.3% again in August.

Meanwhile, although convenience store industry sales are steadily increasing, sales per store have fluctuated compared to the same months last year. Sales per convenience store were 52.88 million KRW in August, a decrease of 0.97 million KRW (1.8%) from 53.85 million KRW in August last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.