Looking to start your own business? With the last fifteen months of lockdowns, working from home, and plenty of time for self-reflection, it’s unsurprising that many people are taking the chance to break away from their old jobs and paint a silver lining on this dark storm cloud – quitting their nine-to-five and starting their own business.

But what business should you pick? Chasing the dream is one thing but making sure it’s profitable is another vital aspect too. So if you’re seeking start-up success, glance down the street and consider your corner shop.

A love for local rekindled

According to the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), customer interest in corner shops has never been higher. At the start of the first lockdown, more people searched “local shops” on Google than at any point in the previous 12 months. A survey by YouGov supported this finding, revealing that 23% of Brits used their corner shop more during lockdown.

Rekindling our love for local is not a short-term response to the lockdown either. We examined three reports from ACS, covering 2018, 2019, and 2020. In 2018, the total value of sales in the convenience sector was £39.1bn. By 2019, before lockdowns impacted our shopping habits, this had grown by 3.06% to £40.3bn. In 2020, this grew again by a whopping 10.9%, reaching £44.7bn – a 14.32% increase since 2018.

The convenience store sector is going from strength to strength. With the right products, you could also tap into this success.

Product trends to bring in the pennies

Using ACS’s “Local Shop Report” releases from the last two years, we compared category sale data from independent convenience stores: