Do you think much about convenience stores? I mean, other than that they are convenient. When I speak with toy industry people, the subject rarely comes up yet; according to Chain Store Age (CSA), there are currently 150,274 convenience stores selling hot dogs, beer, and…….toys.
According to writer Marianne Wilson in her CSA article, the number actually went down a little last year. It appears that not even convenience stores can withstand Coronavirus.
Never-the-less, according to Ms. Wilson, 80% of all the gasoline sold in the U.S. is purchased at convenience stores. That’s a whole lot of people walking in and out every day. It would seem that in a time when impulse sales are down due to online purchasing, convenience stores may be the perfect place to pick up some of that lost business.
So what companies dominate the convenience store world? Not surprisingly, 7-Eleven is number one with 9,364 stores. Alimentation Touche-Card is number 2, and Speedway is number 3. If you want to see a complete list, visit CSP to get a full list of the top 202 convenience store chains.
By the way, in case you were wondering, the top states in the country for convenience stores are Texas, California, and Florida. Not surprisingly, all places where people have to do a lot of driving.
