The small convenience store owners and operators constitute the majority of the industry, over 60%—amounting to over 90,000 stores. This “small” sounds pretty big to us, and to the industry analysts.

This is why there are in-depth surveys and studies happening every year to gauge the state of mind of this dominant force in the c-store industry.

The latest such survey was the 2025 Convenience Store News Forecast Study, which shared its conclusions with the industry recently.

‍As the Study indicated, while the issues like increasing operational costs and uncertainty over the future state of the U.S. economy are keeping the convenience store industry's small operators (those operating 20 stores or less) up at night, a higher percentage of them was optimistic in their expectations than as reported in a study conducted a year ago."

“The economy is getting better and prices are coming down,” one small operator remarked.

Still, the c-store industry is concerned about issues that have the biggest impact on their profitability, such as rising operational costs and the ability to hire and retain sufficient personnel.

If there was one area of concern that is typical for the small operators, it’s the competition with the big chains, in an attempt to gain in-store foot traffic.

"Big name c-stores are moving in," one small operator noted as a reason for pessimism.

Nevertheless, at least 36% of the small operators expect to increase their store count this year. In order to achieve this goal, and compete with the big chains on a more equal footing, it helps to have all the assistance one can get. Ticon, a location intelligence consulting firm, provides just such a kind of assistance with its renowned Site Selection reports.

So, when you need to make a decision about a site for your next store, ask Ticon for the most reliable, accurate traffic data and granular data you can find – we got it for you. Traffic counts map, historical traffic maps, demographic analysis report and economic stats, revenue forecasting – we have it all for you at our website, just a click away.

By having all this information produced from impeccably accurate data by highly capable traffic engineers, Ticon is able to offer you the key to finding the optimal locations for your future stores, and to improving the performance of the stores you already own and operate.

It’s like having a full department of traffic engineers and data analysts working for you—only without the cost the big companies have to pay for this luxury.