A toast to beverage alcohol at convenience
The Canadian convenience store industry has long laboured to be competitive in the lucrative beverage alcohol category. September 2025 marks the first anniversary of one of the industry’s latest achievements towards this goal: the ability to sell select alcoholic beverage categories in Ontario convenience stores.
Ontarians have fully adopted the convenience channel as a source for their alcoholic beverages. Of all beverages Ontarians consume from convenience, beverage alcohol now accounts for just over a fifth of occurrences. That puts the channel on par with the national average. Not to say that there is no more room to grow, but Ontario stakeholders can pat themselves on the back for having achieved this milestone.
This installment of Consumer Corner aims to further empower the convenience industry’s competitiveness in the beverage alcohol category. Let’s look at the consumers and occasions for which the convenience channel is most attractive and most competitive when it comes to beverage alcohol consumption.
Expanding to more mature clientele
The convenience store food and beverage consumer is known to skew towards younger, more ethnically diverse customers. The channel has done well to attract the alcohol consumption of their core consumer, but competition in the category also helps convenience stores to attract older customers. Today’s market is fragmented across several cohorts of significant size and unique tastes: Boomers, generation X, millennials and generation Z. As such, it is important to have categories and brands that foremost appeal to the youthful target audience (of legal drinking age), but are also inclusive of older customers who have more cash to burn.
Being a bit younger, the convenience store alcohol consumer is generally lower income, in part-time work, studying or unemployed. Their consumption choices are more value-and price-conscious. The right pack size can play an important role in helping customers achieve their need for value. For some, that means the ability to buy a few cans of craft at a time, while for others that means getting a volume deal. Customizability is a value for youth, whether it’s to manage budget, explore variety, share with others or achieve goals of moderating alcohol consumption.
Making beverage alcohol more convenient outside urban centres
Suburban and rural Canadians are the most likely to take advantage of the availability of beverage alcohol at convenience stores. In urban centres, there are just more options for alcohol specialty stores and grocery. This appeal of beverage alcohol to suburban and rural consumers is in part what helps expand convenience traffic into more mature age brackets.
Being out of the city has an interesting impact on where alcohol is consumed by convenience store customers. Like any alcohol consumer, the product is typically consumed at someone’s home. However, the convenience store alcohol consumer is more likely to take their drink on the go, consuming at less traditional outdoor venues, picnics, fishing, camping or tailgating. Presumably, outdoor consumption would only be promoted in respect of local regulations where it is permitted.
Me-time routines vs. social special occasions
Often, alcoholic beverage promotion centres around social consumption and gathering with friends. While this is usually the case, when consuming alcohol sourced from convenience stores, occasions are split down the middle as to whether they are shared social or solo occasions: drinking alone. As such, they service fewer dinner occasions, and more afternoon or evening drinking occasions.
C-store alcohol consumption is therefore more likely to attract consumers looking to tone down the mood rather than to uplift it. Customers are more likely to be in the mood for something to de-stress, relieve anxiety, positively impact their state of mind and help them think. Uplifting, fun and cheerful alcohol occasions that consider the needs of others are still important to convenience customers, but the channel is less competitive.
All of this considered, it’s no surprise that over a quarter of convenience alcohol customers are also pairing their consumption with cannabis.
Catering to consumption habits of diverse consumers
Categories and brands sold need to balance familiarity with novelty. Having a household-name brand in traditional volume packs is a clear cost-of-entry to attract the mass consumer. But younger customers seek quality over quantity, variety over volume. Varieties of craft beer, local wine, and ready-to-drink cocktails and coolers are essential to resonate with the new generation of alcoholic beverage consumers. Customers need the flexibility of pack sizes and assortments that allow them to pick up a couple drinks to unwind after a hard day or to bring enough to share a few with friends.
This is just the beginning for broadening access to alcoholic beverages across the country. Convenience stores have established strengths with their core consumers and occasions. Opportunities to win share reside in expanding awareness, consideration and trial amongst consumers and occasions for which convenience is not the first thought. This can be tricky given in-store marketing regulations and may have to happen in media spaces before the customer even gets to the door.
