Convenience Stores NAICS 445131, 457110

Nov 18, 2025 - C-Stores Taking on QSRs

• Underscoring the success of convenience stores’ foray into food service, five appear on a new list of top-ranked US quick-service restaurants, Convenience Store News reports. Moreover, c-stores Buc-ee’s and Kwik Trip took first and second place ahead of In-N-Out, Raising Cane’s, and Chick-fil-A in the top five as ranked by the Convenience Retailer Preference Index (RPI) QSR Edition from dunnhumby. Sheetz and WaWa placed sixth and seventh, respectively. Casey’s General Stores, which ranks as one of the largest pizza chains in the US, took 11th place. Clearly, c-stores are giving QSRs a run for their money as legitimate and even preferable quick service meal destinations and are blurring the lines between traditional QSRs and convenience stores. Total c-store industry food service sales, which includes prepared food, commissary, and hot, cold, and frozen dispensed beverages, accounted for nearly 28% of in-store sales in 2024.
• Popular THC-infused drinks and edibles may disappear from convenience store shelves in the next year as Congress moves to passing a ban on nearly all hemp-derived THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, products, The Hill reports. The federal funding bill, signed by President Trump to end the historic 43-day government shutdown, contains a provision that would recriminalize many of the intoxicating hemp-derived products that were legalized by the 2018 Farm Bill. The provision prevents the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products, according to a Senate Appropriations Committee summary. Products facing bans include gummies, chews, chocolates, baked edibles, vapes, oils, tinctures, or any other product with any THC dose higher than 0.4 mg per package or container.

• 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.
• 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.