New Census Shows Convenience Services Outpacing Much of Foodservice and Shifting Toward Tech‑Enabled, Health‑Forward Offerings

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The NAMA Foundation today released The 2024–25 State of Convenience Services, a new industry census that reveals how self-service retail and workplace amenities are driving some of the strongest growth in food and beverage access. It also explores how the mix of micro markets, vending, office coffee service, and pantry continues to evolve.

Developed in partnership with Technomic, the report gives decision‑makers a powerful view of industry scale, performance benchmarks, and long‑term expectations, helping them answer three pressing questions: how big is this market now, how is it changing, and where is the opportunity over the next five years?

Key report findings:

• The U.S. convenience services industry revenue is estimated at $31.1 billion in 2025, up from $26.6 in 2023. This is an average annual growth of 8.1% since 2023.
• Vending remains the industry’s largest business line in terms of revenue and number of businesses, but operators are increasingly running multiple business lines.
• As retail technologies continue to evolve, the distinctions between traditional vending, smart coolers, and micro markets are becoming less rigid. Operators increasingly view these formats as complementary tools to tailor solutions to client size, security needs and product mix.
• Operators continue to report strong interest in healthier assortments, with 65% citing client requests for healthier product mixes and 59% viewing better-for-you products as a growth opportunity.
• Looking ahead, the census projects continued growth across all convenience services business lines about 6.5% annually.

“The new Census shows just how central convenience services has become to keeping workplaces running smoothly and people supported throughout the day — and where opportunity is growing next,” said Christine Cochran, NAMA President & CEO. “As employers invest in workplace amenities and self-service formats evolve, this research helps operators, suppliers and investors see the shifts early and plan more confidently.”

Data for the study were collected in October 2025 and reflect reported results for 2023 and 2024 along with preliminary estimates and forecasts for 2025. Participating companies represent approximately 27% of total industry activity, providing a broad view of the sector across micro markets, vending, office coffee service and pantry services. The NAMA Foundation produces the State of Convenience census every other year to provide consistent benchmarks on industry size, structure, trends and outlook.

For more information or to access the report, visit at https://namanow.org/foundation/census.

NAMA represents the U.S. Convenience Services Industry, which contributes $41+ billion to the U.S. economy. By providing advocacy, education, and research, NAMA works to promote and protect the industry’s over 171,000 hardworking employees. Through traditional vending and micro markets, office coffee and pantry services, product manufacturing, and small-drop distribution, convenience services meets the needs of over 40 million American consumers daily at work, home, school, and play.