{"id":590739,"date":"2026-04-23T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=590739"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:45:00","slug":"heres-what-happened-inside-convenience-stores-when-gas-hit-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=590739","title":{"rendered":"Here’s What Happened Inside Convenience Stores When Gas Hit $4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s What Happened Inside Convenience Stores When Gas Hit $4<\/span><\/p>\n

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Continuing our coverage of consumer behavior shifts at petrol stations and convenience stores, the U.S. national average for 87-octane gasoline has remained above the politically sensitive $4-a-gallon level for three weeks. Goldman analysts have released a new note indicating that a majority of convenience stores are seeing drivers buying less fuel and trading down in-store.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bonnie Herzog, managing director and senior consumer analyst at Goldman, penned a note titled Q1 “Beverage Bytes,”<\/em> which covers a survey of 32,000 retail locations, or about 21% of convenience stores nationwide<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“Despite the improved outlook, it appears that some consumers are already changing their behavior as gas prices remain elevated (at ~$4\/gallon). Our retailers are seeing consumers purchasing less fuel, downtrading within the store, and declining basket sizes<\/strong>,” Herzog wrote in the note.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More than half of respondents (53%) said they are already seeing changed consumer behavior with gas prices around $4 a gallon, while another 37% expect behavior to shift if prices remain elevated. Only 11% said they have not noticed any change.<\/p>\n

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The most common pattern shifts in these convenience stores were consumers buying less fuel, trading down at the pump, trading down in-store, and buying fewer in-store items. A smaller share also said customers are simply driving less because of higher gas prices.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, Herzog’s team published<\/a> a survey of 44,000 retail locations across the U.S. (about 28% of all tobacco outlets) <\/strong>that showed $4-a-gallon fuel had already sparked trading down among nicotine users: “Downtrading was strong in Q1, as roughly 80% of respondents indicated that deep-discount cigarettes gained share.”<\/em><\/p>\n

To sum up, the fuel price shock highlights just how sensitive consumers remain in an ongoing K-shaped economy<\/strong>, with working-poor households bearing the brunt of the financial pain.<\/p>\n

Professional subscribers<\/a>\u00a0can read the “Beverage Bytes<\/a>”\u00a0note on\u00a0our new\u00a0Marketdesk.ai<\/a>\u00a0portal.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 04\/23\/2026 – 07:45<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s What Happened Inside Convenience Stores When Gas Hit $4 Continuing our coverage of consumer behavior shifts at petrol stations and convenience stores, the U.S. national average for 87-octane gasoline has remained above the politically sensitive $4-a-gallon level for three weeks. Goldman analysts have released a new note indicating that a majority of convenience stores… Continue reading Here’s What Happened Inside Convenience Stores When Gas Hit $4<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":590740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=590739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/590740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=590739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=590739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=590739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}