The NACS State of the Industry Report® of 2023 Data reported industry fuel sales topping $532.2 billion—the second-highest figure recorded to date. While this number is impressive, it marked a sharp decline from the $603.2 billion sales recorded in 2022.

This decline in fuel sales impacted the total store revenue line in 2023, which decreased by 6.4% year over year.

Fuel gallons increased from 141,254 gallons sold per store, per month to 141,813 gallons in 2023—a slight increase of 0.4%. However, falling gasoline prices, combined with fuel demand that has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels, caused overall fuel sales to go down by double digits.

The drop in the year-over-year average selling price of fuel from $3.98 to $3.53 led to an 11.0% decrease in dollar sales. Fuel gross profits fared better and saw a 1.8% decrease, from $61,143 to $60,066 per store, per month.

Fuel performance varied across the six NACS regions. The West region, which has historically seen the highest average gas prices, saw the largest drop in the price of fuel and Central saw the least. In terms of fuel gallons, five out of six regions saw the rate stay flat or slightly up—Central was the only region with a decline.