Supermarket retailer Giant Eagle Inc. announced Monday that it has agreed to sell all of its GetGo convenience stores to a Canadian outfit that operates more than 16,700 similar stores globally, marking consolidation in an industry valued at $860 billion.
Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., will take control of about 270 GetGo retail and fueling locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana, which employ about 3,500 people. Those employees will be offered jobs at Alimentation Couche-Tard stores.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Good news for shoppers: The GetGo stores will continue to participate in Giant Eagle’s popular myPerks loyalty program after the transaction closes next year.
What’s more, consumers will soon be able to earn myPerks at Alimentation Couche-Tard’s Circle K stores within Giant Eagle’s footprint, Giant Eagle CEO Bill Artman said.
“The GetGo name will stay in the four states where they operate,” he said. “We’re excited to focus on our supermarket and pharmacy business, open new locations and reinvest in remodels of our stores.”
Alimentation Couche-Tard President and CEO Brian Hannasch said he was excited to add GetGo stores to the company’s portfolio, which includes such brands as Circle K, Statoil Fuel & Retail and Holiday Stationstores.
“We look forward to growing together as we learn from and continue GetGo’s innovative approaches to serving its local customers and communities,” he said in a prepared statement.
The deal is subject to customary regulatory approval by the Federal Trade Commission and closing conditions. Alimentation Couche-Tard will finance the transaction with available cash and/or existing credit facilities.
Among the early combination gas stations and convenience stores was one that opened in 1964 in Colorado, a model that grew rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s as store owners realized they could generate profits from combining the sale of gasoline with retail food products. Sheetz Inc., which also embraced the model, opened its first store in Altoona in 1952, later adding self-service gasoline.
Today, Sheetz has more than 700 stores in six states.
The convenience store industry in the U.S. generated $859.8 billion in sales in 2023, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores, an Alexandria, Va.-based trade group. That included $327.6 billion from in-store sales and $532.2 billion from fuel sales.
Convenience stores sell approximately 80% of the fuel purchased in the country.
The GetGo chain began in 2003 with the opening of stores in Kennedy and Canton, Ohio, outlets that continued to blur the lines between grocers and gas stations. Car washes were added in more recent years.
The risks of the sale include the possibility of cutting staff at GetGo stores to bump up margins, according to Burt Flickinger III, managing director at New York City-based retail consultant Strategic Resource Group.
“GetGo is always really well staffed with excellent service,” he said. “But the first place a foreign guy looks to monetize an acquisition is by cutting staff, which is a real risk to the team members in the store,” he said. “They cut hours and try to increase margins by selling private label stuff.”
Unlike GetGo or Alimentation Couche-Tard, Sheetz and Philadelphia area-based Wawa, which operates 1,060 stores, are employee-owned. Alimentation is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ATD symbol.
Kris B. Mamula: kmamula@post-gazette.com
First Published: August 19, 2024, 1:53 p.m.
Updated: August 20, 2024, 5:49 p.m.
