C-Stores Have a Great Community Story to Tell
The U.S. convenience and fuel retailing industry contributes more than $1 billion annually to charities.
Dec 12, 2018
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – With the spirit of giving upon us during the holiday shopping season, the convenience retailing industry has a great story to tell: Convenience stores collect or contribute more than $1 billion a year to charitable groups.
Overall, the median charitable contribution per store is $3,925 in direct contributions and $3,054 in donations collected. Cumulatively, the nearly 155,000 convenience stores in the United States contribute or collect $1.03 billion a year to benefit charitable groups.
NACS issued a press release to the national media that highlighted specifics related to how convenience stores support their communities, based on the findings from a NACS retail member survey:
- Addressing hunger: 76% donate to local food banks and other groups to support those in need
- Emergency relief: 75% have given to a charitable cause during an emergency in the community, such as a natural disaster
- Giving to multiple causes: 66% of companies support five or more charities in a given year
- Sharing their convenient locations: 61% allow charitable groups to use their site for car washes, cookie sales, etc.
- Local matters: 91% of convenience retailers support local causes, and 47% support national causes
- Supporting local youth: 76% support youth sports groups and 69% support local schools via PTAs and other fundraising activities
“We often say in our industry that ‘c-store’ doesn’t just stand for convenience store; it’s stands for community store and these results clearly demonstrate the commitment our industry has to the communities they serve,” said Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of strategic industry initiatives.
In addition, NACS has an interactive Community Toolkit that provides ideas around numerous community-focused areas that retailers of all sizes can implement.
And, please share your story with NACS at [email protected].
