Difference Between a Grocery Store and Convenience Store

While both convenience and grocery stores stock food and packaged consumer goods, their approach to staffing, store design and product mix significantly different. Convenience stores are geared toward short shopping trips for one or just a few items, while grocery pricing and logistics encourage large shopping trips to stock up on food and household supplies.

What Is a Convenience Store?

A convenience store is a retail outlet that sells a limited range of prepared and ready-to-eat foods, bottled and fountain beverages, household staples, tobacco products and periodicals. Convenience stores are typically small in size, are open extended hours, and, in most cases, are staffed by a relatively small team of cashiers, stock workers, and managers.

While there can be significant differences between individual convenience stores, these stores are stocked, located and designed for customers who are on the go and need to pick up just a few items. Because convenience stores are often open late at night, early in the morning and on holidays, many people also rely on them for emergency purchases of things like ice, milk, eggs or over-the-counter medicines when regular stores are closed.

What Is a Grocery Store?

Grocery stores specialize in the selling of food, both fresh and prepackaged, as well as nonfood household goods, such as paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning products and over-the-counter medicines. A typical grocery store sells fresh produce, meats, dairy products and, often, bakery goods alongside canned, frozen and prepared foods. In addition, a grocery store will also sell a full range of household, healthcare and personal care items.

Grocery Store vs. Supermarket

The difference between the grocery store and supermarket isn’t clear-cut; the terms are often used interchangeably to describe the larger format store that offers a full range of fresh and prepared foods, household cleaners and cleaning tools, personal care products and healthcare products. In some cases, however, the term “supermarket” is used to describe a large size grocery store that also includes a broader assortment of goods which may include cosmetics, basic clothing, such as socks or underwear, small appliances, electronics and even gift items.

Supermarkets may also offer more departments than a standard grocery store. While many grocery stores often have meat and deli counters, a supermarket may have additional specialty departments, such as a floral department, fish and seafood counter, an in-house bakery and a pharmacy.

Differences Between Convenience and Grocery Stores

Grocery and convenience stores have different missions. Grocery stores are a destination for consumers who need to purchase food and household products for both everyday use and special occasions. The wide selection of products and brands, as well as high inventory levels, allow consumers to shop the goods that their household may need for a significant period of time. Large, wheeled carts are available at the store entrance, with the anticipation that shoppers will fill them with enough food to last a household a week or more.

Convenience stores, on the other hand, meet the needs of shoppers who need one or two products right away. The lack of shopping carts, for example, speaks volumes about how convenience stores operate: There is no need for a cart, as most customers will only buy a few items and can easily carry them up to the cash register.

Store Size: Traditionally, convenience stores have what is known in the retail industry as a “small footprint.” The average convenience store size is around 2400 ft.² – whereas the average grocery store in the United States is around 45,000 ft.² It should be noted, however, that store sizes vary, and there is some evidence that U.S. grocery stores may be decreasing in size.

Store hours: Convenience stores are often open all day, every day, though some do close during late night and early morning hours. Still, one can usually expect these stores to be open very early in the morning and to close late at night. In addition, convenience stores are also frequently open on holidays.

While there are many supermarkets and big box stores that are themselves open 24 hours a day, many maintain more traditional retail hours, such as opening at 8 or 9 a.m. and closing at 9 or 10 p.m. Traditional grocers are also more likely to close, or to adopt a special schedule, on holidays.

Store staffing: Typically, grocery stores have multiple checkout lanes and registers, along with large staffs that include store and department managers, workers in specialty departments, such as the deli or meat counter, cashiers and stockroom workers.

Typically, convenience stores have small staffs and only one or two employees on duty at any one time. Although some stores may have more than one register at a shared checkout counter, many stores only need one register, as customers generally purchase only one or two items.

Location and parking: Convenience stores are often located on small lots or in storefronts in strip malls or in other types of commercial buildings. They are easily accessible by car and on foot. Parking lots are small, allowing patrons to exit their vehicles and head immediately into the store. Some convenience stores are attached to gas stations, which offers additional time savings.

Grocery stores often have much larger parking lots and may be part of a large cluster of retail stores. The large parking lots may require patrons to spend several minutes walking out and into the store.

Pricing: Convenience store prices are almost always higher than what a consumer would pay at a traditional grocery store. The premium pricing reflects the added value of being able to buy something quickly, although grocery stores command more loyalty from repeat and large volume customers due to their more competitive price points.

Product assortment: Convenience store product assortments are limited to items that people are likely to need while commuting, traveling, or when their household supply runs out. Grocery stores, on the other hand, tend to offer a wide range of products in all of their categories, including fresh foods, prepared foods, household products and personal care.

Brand and size diversity: It’s not unusual for traditional grocery stores to offer several brands within a very limited product category. For example, grocery store shelves often hold several different brands of peanut butter. Within each brand, there may be several types of peanut butter, such as creamy, crunchy, and no-added-sugar. These brand varieties may also be available in multiple sizes.

By contrast, a convenience store is likely to carry only one brand of creamy peanut butter. The same is true for other products, such as dish soap, shampoo or diapers.

Hot foods and prepared meals: Usually, convenience stores sell hot and ready-to-eat foods, such as hot dogs, nachos, pre-made sandwiches, and salads. In addition, stores often sell frozen entrees and snacks that can be reheated in the store’s microwave. Fountain drinks and hot coffee are also always available.

Other Considerations

Over the past decade, the retail industry has undergone a massive sea-change in the United States, and around the world. Consumers are becoming more comfortable with home delivery of groceries, which may eventually contribute to smaller grocery store formats. Many consumers are also more health-conscious and are suspicious of prepared and processed foods in convenience stores. This has led to some stores to offer a healthier range of products, including more fresh fruit, vegetarian options and boutique snacks, such as vegetable chips or high-protein cookies.