Weary consumers, declining foot traffic and rising operational costs had convenience store retailers apprehensive heading into 2024. Indeed, some of their concerns were warranted.
After hitting record-high sales in 2022, total U.S. convenience store sales declined for a second consecutive year in 2024, though the decrease was less than in 2023. Sales dropped from $775.5 billion to $755.2 billion, a decline of 2.6%, according to the 2025 Convenience Store News Industry Report, the longest-running annual analysis of U.S. c-store industry performance.
The chief contributor to the overall sales decline was motor fuels. Fuel volume was largely flat, with gallons up just 0.7% for the year. However, lower gas prices drove the industry’s 2024 fuel revenue to decrease by 5.3%, going from $487.8 billion to $462 billion.
Meanwhile, in-store sales at U.S. convenience stores hit a new high of $293.2 billion last year, but the rate of growth was the lowest seen in the past six years. In-store sales increased by just 1.9% year over year, compared to 4.5% in 2023, 6.6% in 2022 and 6.2% in 2021.
Consequently, the convenience store industry’s sales mix for 2024 skewed more toward motor fuels, though in-store sales captured a larger slice of the pie than a year ago. In-store comprised 38.8%, up from 37.1% in 2022. Fuel comprised 61.2%, down from 62.9%.
Looking at the industry’s gross profit dollar mix, however, in-store accounted for 60.7%, while fuel accounted for 39.3%. Overall, industry gross profits rose just 1.2% last year to $128.37 billion. This rate of growth was the lowest since 2020.
Click below to download the full 2025 Convenience Store News Industry Report.
https://csnews.com/convenience-store-news-industry-report-2025-under-pressure