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Wawa has taken the No. 1 slot in the inaugural American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Convenience Store Study 2024, which named it the industry’s top player. The Wawa, Pennsylvania-based chain leads the field with an industry-leading satisfaction score of 82 out of 100. QuikTrip finished second with an ACSI score of 81, followed by Buc-ee’s and Murphy USA, each with a score of 80.
Feeding Satisfaction
The chains with higher satisfaction scores have prioritized serving up a robust set of food options, ACSI said. Hoagie sandwiches are a big draw for Wawa customers, while QuikTrip looks to install QT Kitchens across the chain. Buc-ee’s has a reputation for a wide variety of on-the-go food options, and Casey’s General Stores, with a satisfaction score of 79, is a go-to option in the Midwest for pizza, both traditional and breakfast varieties. Wawa rival Sheetz also scored 79.
Nearly all reporting chains have scores exceeding the industry average of 76, said ACSI. The nation’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, scored 75. Also at 75, a smaller group of unnamed convenience stores, which accounts for a sizeable portion of the industry, dragged down the overall scores. Shell brings up the rear with a satisfaction score of 74.
Despite an eight-point difference between first and last place, most convenience stores are investing in enhancements to the customer experience by adding more customized food offerings, larger merchandise selections, enticing rewards programs and mobile ordering services, ACSI said. Customers have taken notice.
“Convenience stores are no longer just a quick stop for gas and snacks—they are becoming serious competitors in the foodservice industry,” said Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at ACSI. “The top-performing convenience-store brands are now on par with fast-food chains in terms of food quality and variety, offering customers a wide range of fresh, gourmet options. By focusing on the in-store dining experience, while maintaining the speedy service that customers have grown accustomed to, convenience stores may have found the perfect recipe for success.”
Convenient Convenience
At the industry level, convenience of hours and store location receive the highest ratings (83). Among the 34% of respondents who report using a store’s mobile app for ordering, strong ratings for app quality (81) and app reliability (80) and the effectiveness of mobile order pickups (80) show that apps are a valuable channel that is further enhancing customer convenience.
But the success of these stores goes beyond just convenience. Many of the customer experience metrics measured overlap with attributes from foodservice-based studies, providing useful comparisons for these competitors.
For example, while the convenience-store average score of 80 for cooked food quality trails the fast-food industry (84), stores like Wawa, Buc-ee’s, Casey’s, Kwik Trip and Sheetz meet or exceed fast-food chains on this metric. It’s a similar story with food variety. Overall, convenience stores (80) trail the fast food industry by two points, but Buc-ee’s, Wawa, Sheetz and Kwik Trip outperform food-fast chains here as well.
Different regions, same top players
ACSI also measured customer satisfaction at the regional level. Once again, the top players prevailed.
Wawa performs well in both of its primary markets, taking first place for customer satisfaction in the Northeast and second in the South. Buc-ee’s wins the South region, while Sheetz takes second in the Northeast.
QuikTrip and Kwik Trip take the top two spots in the Midwest. Satisfaction levels in the West trail other regions by a sizeable margin. A fragmented market led to fewer individual brands attaining sufficient data to report regional-level results. Here, 7-Eleven and Circle K, both with large footprints, tie for the top spot at 72.
The ACSI Convenience Store Study 2024 is based on 5,710 completed surveys. Customers were chosen at random and contacted via email between March and September 2024.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been a national economic indicator for more than 25 years. It measures and analyzes customer satisfaction with approximately 400 companies in about 40 industries and 10 economic sectors, including various services of federal and local government agencies. Reported on a scale of 0 to 100, scores are based on data from about 200,000 responses annually.
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Greg Lindenberg has been covering convenience-store news and writing about the c-store and gas station industries for more than a quarter of a century. He specializes in mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A) news.
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