Fuel-selling convenience stores hit an eight-year high even as total count slips

The U.S. convenience-store footprint barely moved last year. The forecourt footprint did. NACS and NIQ TDLinx put the 2026 U.S. convenience-store count at 151,975 locations, down 280 stores, or 0.2%, from the prior year, according to NACS Magazine’s updated store-count page (last updated Sept. 9, 2026). But the number of convenience stores selling motor fuels rose by 768 locations, or 0.6%, to 122,620, which NACS called the highest number in eight years.

For operators, that split matters. A slight decline in total doors can still translate into more fuel dispensers to maintain, more EMV and payment uptime to manage, and more fuel-supply and pricing complexity across a network that remains highly fragmented by ownership.

The two “80%” stats operators should not mix up

NACS reports two different “80%” figures that get blurred in internal decks. One is market share: convenience stores sell an estimated 80% of the fuel purchased by U.S. consumers. The other is channel mix: 80.7% of convenience stores sell fuel, according to NACS’ 2026 store count. Those two numbers drive different decisions. Share-of-purchases shows c-stores remain the dominant point of sale for gasoline, which keeps fuel price visibility and forecourt execution central even as merchandising and foodservice evolve. The location-mix figure is a network design signal: most c-stores still have a forecourt, but nearly one in five do not, so programs that assume every site has dispensers, tanks, EV infrastructure plans, or vapor recovery constraints will break at scale.

Small operators still dominate the map, which changes rollout math

Ownership remains the main constraint on any “national” initiative. NACS reported 95,672 stores are owned by companies operating 10 or fewer locations, representing 63% of all convenience stores. At the other end, operators with 500-plus stores account for 33,810 locations, or 22.2%. Convenience Store News highlighted the same small-operator dominance in its coverage of the count, explaining why vendors selling POS, back-office, fuel pricing, tank monitoring, or foodservice tech often face two different implementation worlds: enterprise standardization for chains, and “do it without an IT department” deployment for independents. Procurement teams at larger chains also feel this mix indirectly, because many regional services, petroleum distribution practices, and maintenance capacity are built around small fleets, not only national brands.

State-by-state planning: Texas adds stores while New York shrinks

To put its newest tally in perspective, NACS used an estimated U.S. population of 343 million and calculated one convenience store for every 2,257 people, according to NACS Magazine. NACS reported that Texas leads all states with 16,504 locations, or more than one in 10 stores in the United States, while Alaska has the fewest stores at 185. NACS said the remaining states in the top 10 by store count include Illinois (4,708), Pennsylvania (4,784), Michigan (4,957), North Carolina (5,799), Ohio (5,833), Georgia (7,092), New York (7,561), Florida (9,730) and California (12,143).

The change list is where planners should spend time. NACS reported store-count increases in 22 states, led by Texas (+88), Georgia (+39) and Ohio (+38). New York posted the largest decline (-143), followed by Massachusetts (-77) and New Jersey (-61), according to NACS Magazine. CSP Daily News also framed the 2026 count as the second consecutive yearly decline, noting NACS had reported a 0.1% contraction in the prior year.

Longer-run context: forecourts held up in past contractions, too

The 2026 NACS/NIQ TDLinx count echoes a pattern seen earlier in the decade: fuel sites can be more resilient than non-fuel sites during contractions. Fuels Market News’ 2021 coverage of the 2021 NACS/Nielsen count reported that in the 2020 contraction, the store-count decline was more pronounced among stores that did not sell fuel.

Where this lands in 2026 budgeting and vendor reviews

• Forecourt and fuel systems: When evaluating dispenser replacement, tank monitoring, or service contracts, confirm whether the program assumes 100% fuel sites. NACS puts the fuel-site share at 80.7%, which matters for mixed portfolios and acquired networks.
• Network planning: Use NACS’ state deltas to pressure-test field coverage, technician routing, and petroleum distribution capacity. A vendor’s “national coverage” pitch can look different in Texas (+88) than in New York (-143).
• Retail tech rollout scope: For chains benchmarking adoption plans, compare your deployment model to the ownership reality. NACS says 63% of stores are in fleets of 10 or fewer, so vendor roadmaps that only work in large chains can limit ecosystem interoperability.