State of the Industry-Gas Stations
Recently, the US Census Bureau released the 2022 numbers for their Annual Business Census. We at NJGCA track these stats, and it can be interesting and useful to know not just what our place is in the economy today, but how it has changed over the last 25 years that this in-depth data is available.
While the total number of gas stations in New Jersey had started to trend upward slightly before the covid-19 outbreak, since then it has been declining again and came in at 2,253 in 2022. In 1998 there were 3,085, a 27% decline in 25 years. Still, much of that decline happened in the early 2000s; over the last decade the total decline has been just 4%, though given the openings of new Wawas and Quickcheks, the drop in independent stations has been higher. The gas station category is subdivided into stations with c-stores and stations without c-stores, most of which have auto repair shops. The number of stations with a c-store has increased in absolute terms by 74% since 1998, and now makes up 47% of total stations. Meanwhile, the number of stations without a c-store has fallen by 52%.
Not all declines in numbers are because a business has closed completely. It could also be that they have changed their structure and were moved into a different category. For example, a gas station with a repair shop that closes its pumps becomes one fewer gas station, but one more auto mechanical repair shop.
The average station with a c-store now has 15.8 employees. You can see the impact Wawa has on that stat–a decade ago the average was about 11 per location. Stations without a c-store average just 4.5 employees. The average salary at a location with a c-store is $25,307, a drop over the previous two years but almost unchanged from the average salary going back as far as 1998 when you adjust for inflation. The average salary at stations without c-store, on the other hand is $32,751 across all employees (attendants and technicians), and that has increased about 15% over the last 5 years, even after adjusting for inflation.
71% of stations without a c-store have just 1-4 employees, and 20% have 5-9 (91% under 10 employees). 41% of stations with a c-store have 1-4 employees, while 21% have 5-9 (62% under 10), 18% have 10-19 total employees, and 14% have more than 50 employees on the books (148 locations). In total, gas stations in NJ employ 22,123 people and contribute $600 million in payroll to the economy.
42% of gas stations are organized as s-corps, 26% are partnerships, 25% are c-corps, and 7% are an individual proprietorship. 41% of all people (9,051) employed by a gas station work at an s-corp with 50+ employees (Wawa is an s-corp).
While the 10-year trend for the state as a whole has been a roughly 4% decline, there's been some big outliers in different parts of the state. Sussex, Hudson, Somerset, Morris, and Passaic counties have more stations operating in 2022 than in 2013. Meanwhile, the South Jersey counties of Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Cumberland, and Cape May saw the biggest declines, as did Essex and Hunterdon counties. One-third of the stations operating in Cape May county a decade ago have closed.
While the total number of stations has dropped by 4% over this ten-year period, the total gallons of motor fuel sold in that period has dropped by 10% (based on figures from the Treasury). The entire retail category has seen a 13% decline in the number of operating locations over the last 25 years, with a 5% decline in the last decade.
New Jersey's gas retail market stands out from the rest of the US. Here 47% of stations have a c-store, compared with 88% of the 109,243 stations across the country. That's by far the lowest % in the country, the next is Oregon with 69%, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Alaska, and Wyoming are around 75%, and our neighbor New York is at 80%.
Only 12 states have seen an increase in the number of stations operating since 2010. New Jersey's 4.9% drop in that period is in the middle of the pack, the same as our neighbor Pennsylvania. 7 states have seen a double-digit drop, led by Virginia with a 20% decline. Indiana and California saw the biggest increases, with Florida and Texas also seeing increases to match their skyrocketing population growth. NJ has the 11th biggest population in the country, but we are number 18 in total gas stations, likely owing to our relatively small geography.
Nationwide, gas stations provided the economy with just over $27 billion in total payroll and employed just under 1 million people. Two-thirds of stations in the US have under 10 employees.
Next week we'll dive into the details of the automotive world in the state.
.jpg)
