What’s up with the number of Convenience Stores in the US?

If you’re like me, you’ve seen a lot new convenience stores being built these days.  That’s great for our business but from data supplied by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) the number of convenience stores in the country is actually shrinking. In fact, the number of stores has shrunk 4.5% in the last four (4) years.  So how do we explain that?  First, let’s look at some of the data.  There are 148,026 convenience stores in the US and 79% of them sell motor fuels.  Of that 148,026 stores, 88,815 (or 60%) of them are owned by single-store operators or what we refer to as “dealers”.  This market segment has accounted for the majority of that 4.5% drop in store count.  It’s not really that surprising since these business owners face the challenge of competing with Buc-ee’s, 7-Eleven, QuikTrip and other big convenience store chains every day.  Pretty similar to your local appliance store that can no longer compete with the likes of Lowe’s, Home Depot, Walmart, and others.

So all of this sounds like bad news for us! ☹ But don’t worry, it’s not.  Our concern is not the number of sites but the number of dispensers.  When you consider that the average number of dispensers taken out of service when a dealer sites closes down is four and that the average number of dispensers installed at a new site is eight then we end up ahead of the game.

One other convenience store data tidbit…..

Texas has the most convenience stores in the country with 15,742 (or more that one in 10 stores in the United States).  And, it’s the only state in the country which added convenience stores in 2021.  Like I said, “it’s great for our business”!