GasBuddy's Second Quarter 2018 Fuel and Convenience Store Report Card Reveals a Number of Newcomers Outranking Familiar Brands

July 17, 2018

Casey’s General Store dominates the 1000+ location segment, Kwik Trip and Stewart’s Shops take the lead in respective number-of-locations segments

BOSTON GasBuddy, the only smartphone app connecting drivers with the Perfect Pit Stop, today issued the second quarter report card ranking fuel and convenience store (c-store) brands. Based on more than two million ratings submitted by GasBuddy users in the app between April 1 – June 30, 2018, the rankings examine fuel and c-store retailers by number of store locations across the categories of cleanliness, coffee, customer service, outdoor lighting, restrooms and overall experience.

Brands topping the list in the “overall experience” category in their respective segments include Iowa-based Casey’s General Store (1000+ locations), Wisconsin-based Kwik Trip (250 - 999 locations), New York-based Stewart’s Shops (50 - 249 locations) and New York-based NOCO Express (30 - 49 locations).

“The second quarter of 2018 includes the start of the busy summer driving season, and we saw an increase in activity when it comes to rating and reviewing,” says Frank Beard, convenience store and retail trends analyst at GasBuddy. “There was major movement across all categories. Some brands that did well last quarter like Wawa fell off the report completely, owing to the impact of seasonal changes. Actively monitoring consumer ratings and reviews is a key strategy to ensure consistent, quality service.”

View the full report here.

Highlights

  • Casey’s General Store maintains a strong showing in Q2, capturing four of the six categories in the 1000+ locations segment.
  • 7-Eleven captures the top spot in the coffee category in the 1000+ location segment, while former top contender Speedway moved down three rankings.
  • Sheetz outranked Wawa in all categories. Wawa’s ratings this quarter dropped them from the top 5 brands with 250 - 999 locations, replaced by Holiday Stationstores and Kum & Go.
  • Stewart’s Shops dethrones Hy-Vee in four of the six categories amongst brands with 50 - 249 locations.
  • NOCO Express captured the top spot in cleanliness, customer service and outdoor lighting amongst brands with 30 - 49 locations. Buc-ee’s still maintains their top ranking in the restrooms category from Q1 to Q2.
  • GasBuddy’s ratings and reviews saw an 8 percent growth from Q1 to Q2, 2018. Outdoor lighting received the most ratings out of any category, followed by customer service and cleanliness.

About GasBuddy
GasBuddy is a smartphone app connecting drivers with their Perfect Pit Stop. GasBuddy is the leader in crowdsourced information to help drivers find the best gas prices, closest stations, friendliest service, cleanest restrooms, tastiest coffee and much more. GasBuddy is the leading source for the most accurate, real-time fuel prices at more than 140,000 gas stations in the U.S, Canada and Australia. The Company’s B2B Retailer Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), known as GasBuddy Business Pages, provide Fuel Marketers and Retailers their best opportunity to maintain their station information, manage their brand, and promote to their target consumer audience.