Higher fuel prices push shoppers to wholesale club gas stations

Higher fuel prices are pushing more shoppers toward wholesale club gas stations, where consumers see the best value when every mile matters. R.J. Hottovy of Placer.ai said the rise in fuel costs over the past several months helped drive more traffic to club fuel sites, and he made that case on June 12 at CSP’s Foodservice Forum in Schaumburg, Illinois.

The backdrop has been volatile. AAA said the national average for regular gasoline stood at $4.24 a gallon on June 4, 2026, before easing to $3.867 by June 28. That kind of swing changes how families shop long before they reach the checkout line, especially for households that have to choose between one extra stop and a longer drive across town.

For Dollar General, fuel is not just a transportation expense. The company’s investor materials say customers use its stores for everything from fill-in shopping to periodic stock-up trips and weekly or more frequent essential trips, which means higher gasoline prices can affect both how often customers come in and how much they spend once they do. Dollar General said it had 20,893 Dollar General, DG Market, DGX and pOpshelf stores in the United States and Mexico as of January 30, 2026, giving it one of the broadest footprints in discount retail.

That matters most in lower-income and rural markets, where gas costs can hit harder because every shopping run takes more fuel. CNBC summarized Federal Reserve Bank of New York research showing lower-income consumers were buying less in response to higher gas prices, while higher-income households had changed behavior much less. At the store level, that usually shows up as shorter baskets, more requests for cheaper substitutes, and a sharper focus on the lowest-cost staples.

Dollar General has tried to tap some of that fuel-driven value behavior itself. Industry reporting says the chain opened its first fuel location in 2013 and later expanded a pilot to more than 40 stores, mostly in the South, with one report saying the gas was priced up to 40 cents cheaper per gallon on average at about 40 sites. In a market where shoppers are calculating every trip, the economics of getting to the store can matter almost as much as the price tags on the shelf.

Placer.ai has also tied rising prices and economic uncertainty to shorter, regional trips and less driving, which points to a retail environment where convenience and value are colliding. For Dollar General teams already dealing with lean staffing, single-associate store concerns and tight inventory pressure, the fuel story adds another layer: when customers are paying more to get there, they expect low-cost essentials to be in stock when they arrive.