9 C-Store Chains Secure Spots on Forbes’ Best Employers By State List for 2024

Photograph courtesy of Kwik Trip

Nine pure-play convenience-store companies made the Forbes’ Best Employers By State 2024 listing. Kwik Trip took the top spot in Iowa, the only c-store chain to obtain that position in any state. Rivals Sheetz and Wawa tied for appearing on the most state lists, at four—North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, and Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, respectively.

READ: Labor and Hiring in 2024: How C-Stores Are Managing in Today’s Employment Market

To create the list, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to survey more than 160,000 employees working for companies with at least 500 people within the United States. Statista asked survey participants how likely they were to recommend their employer on a scale of 0 to 10. It also asked respondents to evaluate employers they had worked for within the past two years.

Statista tallied responses and incorporated them into a scoring system, along with survey data from the past three years. It gave greater weight to the more recent data and to the responses from current employees within the state. Companies that received the highest scores in each state made the list. The 2024 survey included 1,294 organizations.

Here is the alphabetical list, with state rankings:

• 7-Eleven: Indiana (No. 67), Tennessee (No. 66), West Virginia (No. 6)
• Circle K: Illinois (No. 83), Mississippi (No. 12), South Carolina (No. 32)
• Kwik Trip/Kwik Star: Iowa (No. 1), Minnesota (No. 18), Wisconsin (No. 2)
• Love’s Travel Sops & Country Stores: Illinois (No. 79)
• Pilot: Tennessee (No. 42)
• QuikTrip: Arizona (No. 12), Missouri (No. 40)
• Sheetz: North Carolina (No. 67), Pennsylvania (No. 29), Virginia (No. 79), West Virginia (No. 12)
• United Refining: Pennsylvania (No. 80)
• Wawa: Florida (No. 56), New Jersey (No. 39), Pennsylvania (No. 74), Virginia (No. 87)

Click here to read the full Forbes list.

7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count; Alimentation Couche-Tard (Circle K) is No. 2; QuikTrip is No. 9; Wawa is No. 10; Kwik Trip is No. 11; Sheetz is No. 13; Pilot is No. 15; Love’s is No. 16; and United Refining is No. 22.

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