Study: Convenience stores grow 1% in 2014

Alexandria, Va. - The U.S. convenience store count increased to 152,794 stores as of Dec. 31, 2014. That marks a nearly 1% increase from the prior year, according to the 2015 NACS/Nielsen Convenience Industry Store Count.



Convenience stores account for 33.9% of all retail outlets in the U.S. The convenience retailing industry continues to be dominated by single-store operators, which account for 63% of all convenience stores (96,318 stores total) and 83.5% of store growth in 2014. Overall, 83.5% of convenience stores 127,588 sell motor fuels, a 0.7% increase (930 stores) over 2013.



Among the states, Texas continues to lead in store count with 15,434 stores. The rest of the top 10 states for convenience stores are California (11,403); Florida (9,810); New York (8,247); Georgia (6,766); North Carolina (6,301); Ohio (5,539); Michigan, (4,907); Illinois (4,670) and Pennsylvania (4,604), which nudged Virginia out of the top 10.



The convenience retailing industry has roughly doubled in size in the last three decades. At year-end 1984, the store count was 85,300 stores, at year-end 1994 the store count was 98,200 stores and at year-end 2004 the store count was 138,205 stores.