Convenience Stores NAICS 445131, 457110

Oct 18, 2025 - Penny Shortage

• Retailers are starting to experience penny shortages in the aftermath of President Trump’s executive order earlier this year for the Treasury to end the production of the penny, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) reports. The final minting of pennies happened in June and the Federal Reserve made its last shipment to its coin distribution locations in August. In late September, the NACS met with Treasury officials and sent a letter to the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees urging them to pass federal legislation allowing businesses to round transactions to the nearest nickel. The letter noted that some states and localities have cash laws prohibiting this type of rounding, necessitating federal legislation. C-store operator Kwik Trip recently adopted a new cash transaction policy allowing all cash purchases at its Kwik Trip and Kwik Star locations to be rounded down to the nearest five cents.
• A recent American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey named Kwik Trip America’s favorite convenience store with a score of 84, dethroning the previous leader Wawa, which tied with Sheetz at 82. (The index rates customer satisfaction on a scale of 0-100.) Kwik Trip’s rise underscores how investing in service, cleanliness, and community focus drives customer loyalty and top rankings. Food quality and selection has emerged a key differentiator as in-store food sales overtake fuel at many chains. The survey also found that the app usage and rewards program adoption strongly correlate with higher customer satisfaction. The ACSI organization noted the range between the highest and lowest scores was 11 points, a relatively large spread that demonstrates the variability in consumer experience across the convenience-store sector. For c-store operators, the takeaway is clear: evolve from mere commodities to destinations, with food, tech, and experience at the core of your business strategy.

• RaceTrac, the gas station and convenience store chain, has agreed to acquire sandwich-maker Potbelly for $566 million, NACS reported in September. The seemingly unlikely combination is an extension of growing retail trends and underscores the growth of foodservice in the c-store business models and the industry’s attempt to get customers to linger in stores longer. Foodservice, which carries much higher margins than gas sales, has more than doubled its share of in-store sales in the past two decades, from 11.9% in 2004 to 27.7% in 2024, according to NACS State of the Industry Data. Also, US chains are taking a page from Asian c-stores, which position themselves as neighborhood hangouts and have become a fixture in Japanese life, according to a recent New York Times article. Potbelly has 445 company- and franchised-owned restaurants across the US.
• Producer prices for gasoline stations fell 1.1% in August compared to a year ago after rising 13.5% year over year in July, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In August 2025, the average price for regular motor gasoline was $3.13 per gallon; up 0.3% from July 2025 and down 7.6% from August 2024, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Employment by convenience stores was flat YoY in July, while the average industry wage eased 0.3% over the same period to $16.59 per hour, BLS data show.