Remember when the impulse-purchase racks at the grocery store only offered toys, gum and celebrity gossip magazines? Now single-serve beverage coolers are taking up sizeable real estate ‘front-of-store’ at grocers, convenience stores, drug stores, mass merchandisers and more thanks to a strong and seemingly universal demand for a wide range of grab-and-go drinks.
Sales figures prove the point. Companies attuned to the convenience trend reaped high rewards last year. “Grab-and-go” packaged beverages yielded growth of 6% in traditional stores and 11% in the convenience channel in 2012—both significantly outpacing the beverage category as a whole, which grew at 2.6%, according to IRI estimates.