In 2024, the U.S. c-store industry experienced its 22nd consecutive year of record inside sales. Foodservice played a key role, delivering strong growth and healthy margins for operators: 38.59% of in-store gross margin dollars in 2024, up from 38.48% in 2023, according to NACS State of the Industry Report® of 2024 Data.
Fuels and cigarettes, both traditionally viable profit generators with high-frequency shoppers, saw sales decreases. In 2024, total fuels revenues decreased 5.7% to $501.9 billion due to a 5.9% decrease in the average gas price ($3.32 in 2024 versus $3.56 in 2023). Among the top 10 in-store merchandise categories (excluding foodservice), cigarettes was the only category that did not have positive sales and gross profit growth.
Andrew Baill, senior manager of customer insights and strategy at Wawa, delivered key performance metrics for in-store categories during the 2025 NACS State of the Industry Summit.
At the 2025 NACS State of the Industry Summit in April, Andrew Baill, senior manager of customer insights and strategy at Wawa, highlighted broad inside merchandise sales and trends for the past year. “When you think about the sales and gross margin breakdown in our channel, foodservice is a key contributor. On the merchandise side, six categories make up most of our sales and profit: packaged beverages, cigarettes, other tobacco products, beer, salty snacks and candy,” he said. Along with foodservice, these categories account for about 90% of inside sales and profits.
Although inflation pressures eased in 2024, the top six merchandise categories showed unit declines in 2024. Baill noted that this headwind continued into the first two months of 2025 and is one to watch moving forward.
The cold box is one of the most significant areas of a c-store—a huge differentiator compared to other retail channels. Convenience stores own the packaged beverage space.
Together, packaged beverages and beer are responsible for nearly 25% of both inside sales and gross margin in c-stores.
Interested in how other categories performed in 2024? The NACS State of the Industry Report of 2024 Data is available for purchase here.