U.S. Convenience In-Store Sales Top $340 Billion

Foodservice and merchandise sales for the U.S. convenience retail industry reached $341.2 billion in 2025, a 1.7% increase over 2024. It marked the 23^rd consecutive year of inside sales growth, according to newly released State of the Industry data from the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS).

Total convenience industry sales, including in-store and fuel, were $817.5 billion.

The industry’s 2025 performance was shared during the NACS State of the Industry Summit, the premier event for analysis, performance insights and trends shaping the year ahead. NACS has produced this annual dataset since 1970.

Foodservice Leads Inside Sales

Foodservice once again led in-store sales, accounting for 28.5% of the total. The category has grown significantly over the past two decades, up from 11.9% in 2005. Its impact on profitability is even greater, contributing 38.9% of in-store gross profit dollars in 2025.

Foodservice includes prepared food, commissary items and hot, cold and frozen dispensed beverages. Prepared food—pizza, chicken, burgers, sandwiches, wraps and salads—remains the largest segment, representing 73.9% of foodservice sales, up from 66.4% in 2021.

Packaged beverages ranked as the No. 2 in-store category, accounting for 18.7% of sales, up 0.8 points from 2024. Among other categories, alternative snacks (including jerky, seeds and nuts) saw strong growth of 7.9%, reflecting rising demand for protein-focused items, partially driven by increased GLP-1 usage.

The data is based on submissions from convenience retailers representing more than 35,000 stores, combined with insights from NACS CSX, a self-reported industry database. All submitted data is anonymized and kept confidential.

Fuel Gallons Hold Steady

Convenience stores, which account for an estimated 80% of fuel sales in the U.S., saw total fuel sales decline 5.4%, from $501.9 billion in 2024 to $476.3 billion in 2025. The decrease was driven by a 5.9% drop in average gas prices, from $3.30 to $3.11 per gallon, while gallons sold increased 0.5%.

Fuel represented 65.0% of total sales dollars but 38.8% of gross profit dollars.

Including both fuel and in-store transactions, the average convenience store recorded 45,160 transactions per month in 2025 (1,484 per day), a 2.7% decrease from the previous year.

Expenses Increase, but at a Slower Pace

Direct store operating expenses (DSOE)—including wages, benefits, card fees, utilities, maintenance and shrink—rose 4.2%, the slowest increase since the COVID pandemic. However, credit and debit card fees reached a record $21.3 billion.

Convenience stores supported 2.75 million jobs in 2025, with an average of 19.9 employees per store. Hourly wages averaged $15.04.

The industry also contributed $232 billion in local, state and federal taxes, representing more than 28% of total revenues.

The U.S. convenience store count totaled 151,975 locations, a slight decrease of 280 stores (0.2%) year over year. However, the number of stores selling fuel increased by 768 (0.6%) to 122,620, the highest level in eight years.

Full analysis of industry data and trends will be published in the NACS State of the Industry Report^® of 2025 Data in June.