As the year comes to a close and NACS Research looks forward to gathering and analyzing 2024 data, let’s review some important data highlights from 2023.

The convenience industry saw $859.8 billion sales in 2023. While industry sales as a whole declined by 5.1%—the first year-over-year decline since 2020—inside sales increased by 8.2%, for a total of $327.6 billion in sales inside the store. The industry’s remaining $532.2 billion in sales came from fuel, which saw a 11.8% sales decline from the previous year.

These sales were spread across the 152,396 stores in the United States. The majority of these were owned by single store operators (91,799). Operators with more than 500 stores accounted for 32,864 locations.

In 2023, the convenience industry relied on 2.74 million employees, both in corporate offices and as frontline employees, to serve its customers. The industry also boasted some of the highest wages among retailers and paid full-time hourly employees $14.73 an hour, a 40 cent increase from 2022.

As a whole, the industry paid $208.3 billion in taxes in 2023.

Ready for next year’s data? Keep an eye on NACS Research and register early for the 2025 NACS State of the Industry Summit, taking place this year in Dallas, Texas, April 8-10.