Convenient procedures, products and services are those intended to increase ease in accessibility, save resources (such as time, effort and energy) and decrease frustration. Convenience is a relative concept, and depends on context. For example, automobiles were once considered a convenience, yet today are regarded as a normal part of life.
Service conveniences are those that save shoppers time or effort, and includes variables such as credit availability and extended store hours. Service convenience pertains to the facilitation of selling both goods and services, and combinations of the two.
Convenience goods are widely distributed products that "require minimal time and physical and mental effort to purchase."
Convenience food and convenience cooking spare the consumer effort in preparation of a meal while providing hight levels of energy and pronounced, if mostly artificial, flavour.
Convenience stores at filling stations sell items that have nothing to do with gasoline/petrol, but purchasing at that location can save the consumer time compared to another trip to a grocery store. Conveniences such as can save companies and consumers money, though this may or may not be passed along to the consumer.
Some conveniences can become nuisances when they break down or don't function correctly. It costs time and money to fix items of convenience when they break down, and may cause much greater costs if something else that depends on them cannot take place.
The Amish (such as the Pennsylvania Dutch) shun many modern conveniences, including electricity.