U.S. Convenience Stores - A Market Analysis

U.S. Convenience Stores - A Market Analysis

The “U.S. Convenience Stores: A Market Analysis” provides extensive research and rational analysis on the proliferating market of convenience stores in United States. This report helps clients to analyze the opportunities and factors critical to the success of the convenience stores market in US.

This report reviews the stores and industry practices across the globe in general and in US in particular. It provides an insight into how convenience business is shaping up to address the gamut of issues raised by this new standard-bearer of world retail.

In recent years, with convenience stores operators initiated on strategic moves to improve operations, enhance performance and differentiate from the competitor to position themselves—the changing nature of convenience retailing and the margin pressures brought on by encroaching competitive formats is driving c-store industry consolidation.

Key Issues and Facts Analyzed

§ What is the market size of the US retail store industry?
§ How is the convenience stores growth state-wise?
§ What are the factors driving growth in this sector?
§ What are the technologies that can help convenience store markets to improve their operations?
§ How these technologies are increasing operational efficiency in this industry?
§ Who are the major players of US Convenience Industry, their presence and strategies being used by them to improve profitability?

Key Findings

§ C-store unit growth continues to outpace US’ population growth as average person per store has declined by 0.72% in the year 2005 in comparison to 2004.
§ California provides a big opportunity market for the C-stores to grow. California is, by far, the largest US state with a population of 36.13 Million in 2005 and accounts for the second highest number of C-stores in US.
§ Convenience stores sell three-quarters of all the gasoline purchased in the United States through Convenience stores.
§ As the gasoline prices are increasing day-by-day, two states, New Jersey (30.1%), and Oregon (51.7 %), had shown the lowest fuel sales in the year 2005.
§ Gasoline theft is a major problem for retailers in US. It is estimated that on an average, one in every 1,100 fill-ups gasoline was theft in 2005.
§ Credit card fees in 2005 constituted more than 90% of a store's profits; totaling to US$ 38,383 per store, and it is expected to grow in the coming years.

Key Players

This section covers the key facts about major players currently operating in the C-store industry, such as 7-Eleven Inc., Kroger, Koninklijke Ahold N.V, Shell Oil Products US, Exxonmobil Corporation, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. and Sunoco, Inc.

Research Methodology Used

Information Sources
Information has been sourced from books, newspapers, trade journals, and white papers, industry portals, government agencies, trade associations, monitoring industry news and developments, and through access to access to more than 3000 paid databases.

Analysis Methods
Ratio Analysis, Historical Trend Analysis, Linear Regression Analysis using software tools, Judgmental Forecasting and Cause and Effect Analysis are the methods used to analyze the facts and figures given in this report.

1. Analyst View
2. Research Overview
3. Industry Overview
3.1 Worldwide Development of C-Store
3.2 Worldwide Retail Sales
3.3 Retail Sales by Geographical Regions
3.4 Worldwide Top Retailers
4. US C-Stores Industry Market
4.1 Total Number of US C-Stores
4.1.1 US - Top Ten States by Maximum Number of C-Stores
4.2 C-Stores - Regional and State-Level Analysis
4.2.1 Southern Region
4.2.2 Northeast Region
4.2.3 Midwest Region
4.2.4 Western States
4.3 C-Store Sales in US
4.4 C-Stores selling Motor Fuels
4.5 In-Store Sales
4.6 Total Single Store and Chain Stores in Operation
4.7 C-Stores Closed in US
4.8 Growth and Sales Analysis of US C-Stores Companies
4.9 Employment Opportunities in US C-Stores
5. Industry Analysis
5.1 Driving Forces
5.1.1 Strong GDP Growth
5.1.2 Investment on the Part of Fuel Retailers
5.1.3 Increase in Disposable Income
5.1.4 Demand for Convenience Shopping
5.1.5 Convenient Location of C-Stores
5.1.6 Socio-demographic Shifts
5.1.7 Single Person Households
5.1.8 Increased Immigration
5.1.9 Increased Travel Time
5.1.10 Eating Patterns
5.1.11 Busy Lives
5.2 Opportunities
5.2.1 IT in C-Stores
5.2.2 Biometric Products for C-Stores
5.2.3 Local C-Stores
5.2.4 Online Presence
5.2.5 Out of Stock
5.2.6 Competition
5.3 Challenges
5.3.1 High Credit Card Fees
5.3.2 Same Customer Visit has to Pay Twice Fees
5.3.3 Shrinking Margins
5.3.4 Labor Challenges
5.3.5 Violence and Robbery
5.3.6 Increased Competition
5.3.7 Virtual Robbery
5.3.8 Gasoline Theft
5.4 Future Outlook
6. Key Players
6.1 7-Eleven Inc.
6.2 Kroger
6.3 Koninklijke Ahold N.V
6.4 Shell Oil Products US
6.5 ExxonMobil Corporation
6.6 Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.
6.7 Sunoco, Inc.

List of Figures:

Figure 3-1: Worldwide - Retail Sales (in Trillion US$), 2001-2006E
Figure 3-2: Worldwide - Retail Sales by Geographical Regions (in Trillion US$), 2006
Figure 4-1: US - Growth in Various Retail Formats (%), 2005-06
Figure 4-2: US - Total Number of C-Stores (2003-04, 2004-05 & 2005-06)
Figure 4-3: US - Number of C-Stores Share by Top 10 States (%), 2005-06
Figure 4-4: US - C-Stores Saturation Figures (Average Person per Store), 2004 & 2005
Figure 4-5: US - C-Store Industry Sales (in Billion US$), 1998-2002 & 2003-04 to 2005-06
Figure 4-6: US - Share of Motor Fuel and In-Store Sales in C-Store Sales (%), 2005-06
Figure 4-7: US - Motor Fuel Sales (in Billion US$), 2004-05 & 2005-06
Figure 4-8: US - Motor Fuel Sales by Product (%), 2005-06
Figure 4-9: US - States with Highest and Lowest Percentage of Motor Fuel Sales
Figure 4-10: US - In-Store Sales Growth (in Billion US$), 2003-04 to 2005-06
Figure 4-11: US - In-Store Sales by Products (%), 2004-05
Figure 4-12: West Coast - Market Segmentation of Single Stores (%), 2005
Figure 5-1: US - Personal Disposable Income (in US$ per Head), 2001-2006E
Figure 6-1: Kroger - Stock Performance
Figure 6-2: Koninklijke Ahold N.V - Stock Performance
Figure 6-3: Exxonmobil Corporation - Stock Performance
Figure 6-4: Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. - Stock Performance
Figure 6-5: Sunoco, Inc. - Stock Performance

List of Tables:

Table 3-1: Structure of Convenience Storefront by Size and Operation
Table 3-2: Worldwide - Top 10 Retailers by Net Sales (in Billion US$), 2005
Table 4-1: US - Historical Growth of C-Stores (1973, 1983, 1993 & 2003)
Table 4-2: US - Total Number of C-Stores in Southern States (2004 & 2005)
Table 4-3: US - C-Stores Saturation Figure for Southern States (Average Person per Store), 2004 & 2005
Table 4-4: US - Total Number of C-Stores in Northeast States (2004 & 2005)
Table 4-5: US - C-Stores Saturation Figure for Northeast States (Average Person per Store), 2004 & 2005
Table 4-6: US - Total Number of C-Stores in Midwest States (2004 & 2005)
Table 4-7: US - C-Stores Saturation Figure for Midwest States (Average Person per Store), 2004 & 2005
Table 4-8: US - Total Number of C-Stores in Western States (2004 & 2005)
Table 4-9: US - C-Stores Saturation Figure for Western States (Average Person per Store), 2004 & 2005
Table 4-10: US - Number of Single Stores and Chain Stores (2004-05 & 2005-06)
Table 4-11: US - Number of C-Stores Closed, 2004
Table 4-12: US - Number of C-Stores Closed, 2005
Table 4-13: US - Top 50 C-Store Companies, 2005
Table 4-14: US - Average Wage Rates (in US$ per Hour), 2004-05
Table 5-1: US - GDP Growth (%), 2001-2006E
Table 5-2: US - Population Break-up (%), 2001-2006E
Table 6-1: 7-Eleven Inc. - Financial Overview (in Million US$), 2000-2004
Table 6-2: Kroger - Financial Overview (in Million US$), 2006
Table 6-3: Koninklijke Ahold N.V - Financial Overview (in Million Euro), Q3 2005 to Q3 2006
Table 6-4: ExxonMobil Corporation - Financial Overview (2003-2005)
Table 6-5: Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. - Financial Overview (in Million US$), 2005 &2006
Table 6-6: Sunoco, Inc. - Financial Overview (2003-2005)