“Convenient in good times, essential in tough times” was the rallying cry of Canada’s convenience stores over the past year, says Anne Kothawala, president & CEO of CICC, the Convenience Industry Council of Canada. “As an essential service, convenience stores quickly moved to safely serve our customers and protect our staff once the pandemic began. It was a stark reminder of the critical role that convenience stores play in communities across the country. Governments noticed this.”

There have been numerous challenges. “Operating costs have increased tremendously to comply with the new restrictions and make sure that customers and employees were kept safe, at all times. Our personnel had to adapt to the very strict sanitary measures and the increased customer traffic in-store while most retail outlets were closed. Also, we had to adapt to the new logistics of supplying our stores while manufacturing and transportation were under enormous pressures because of the pandemic.”

We formed a COVID-19 Working Group so that retailers and distributors could exchange ideas and discuss best practices. “We were also able to convince several provincial governments to include essential workers in the convenience industry in Phase 2 vaccinations.” Finally, CICC continues to monitor the rapidly changing restrictions across the country. “Communicating with our members is critical to help them stay ahead of these changes.”

There has been no shortage of opportunities. “We believe that government regulations should support an expansion of the product mix, rather than a contraction. Particularly when consumers are being encouraged to limit their number of shopping trips. We are pushing to expand alcohol sales to convenience stores in Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. With the pandemic, in order to minimize physical contacts, credit card usage has increased tremendously. In Canada, the interchange fees are very high (as much as 4.5% on premium cards) so we are pushing for government to reduce those fees to be more in line with Europe and Australia.”

As for the future of the convenience industry: “We have become established as an essential service and will remain so for the future. We constantly respond to the changing needs of consumers and will continue to do so. Our customers will continue to demand choice, convenience and innovation and we will deliver. The pandemic very clearly demonstrated the critical role that convenience stores play in communities across the country. We hope that it is an industry that won’t be taken for granted any more.”