Ninety-seven percent of Americans are concerned about rising gas prices, and their anxiety is reshaping how they drive, spend and plan — with direct consequences for convenience retailers, according to new findings from Reach3 Insights.

Grocery costs top the list of financial strain: 66% of consumers polled said rising grocery prices affect them most, followed by energy and utilities (39%), dining out (38%) and transportation (38%). The research also found that 65% of consumers are cutting nonessential trips, 61% are driving less overall and 57% are planning errands more carefully.

That behavioral shift means the pressure on convenience stores no longer stops at the fuel island, argues Elie Y. Katz, CEO and president of National Retail Solutions (NRS), writing in CStore Decisions. "When drivers feel the sting of filling up, they walk into your store already braced for another hit," Katz writes. The decisive battleground is what happens the second a price-braced customer crosses the store threshold.

Katz lays out three moves he says operators should make now.

1. Rebuild the value tier — loudly. Every store carries a few anchor items with real weight among price-sensitive shoppers: the dollar soda fountain, the breakfast sandwich combo, the bagged snack that has always been under $2. Katz advises protecting those anchors even at thinner margin, because they perform psychological work: "We get it, we're doing our part to be price-conscious." Retailers should then promote the value tier through endcap signage, register promos and pump-top ads rather than burying the best deal on a shelf. A customer feeling pain at the pump is scanning for cost-effective reasons to still stop in — give them one immediately.

2. Bundle instead of discount. Straight price cuts erode margin fast and rarely build loyalty, Katz writes, while bundling does both jobs at once: pair a fountain drink with a snack at a set price, tie a car wash add-on to a fuel purchase, or build a "fill up and fuel up" combo that pulls a customer from the pump into the store. The customer perceives value because they get more for a number that feels manageable; the retailer protects margin because they control what is in the bundle. Katz notes this requires foodservice and center-store merchandising to work together rather than operate in separate silos.

3. Lean hard into loyalty. "A customer who feels every price increase individually is a customer who churns," Katz writes. A customer earning points, unlocking a free coffee or receiving a personalized phone offer experiences the same price environment completely differently. Loyalty data also enables precision: instead of blanket discounting, retailers can target their highest-value or most price-sensitive customers with specific offers — without discounting across the entire customer base. Retailers sitting on underused loyalty platforms "are leaving real retention on the table right now," Katz writes. "This is the moment to activate it, not shelve it."

None of these tactics require retailers to sacrifice margin to stay competitive, Katz argues — they require intention. High gas prices are not going away on their own timeline, and customers will keep feeling that pain whether retailers address it or not. The question, he writes, is whether customers associate a store with understanding that pain or ignoring it.

Katz's forecast for the coming quarters is pointed: the winners will not be the retailers who "panicked and slashed prices across the board." They will be the ones who got strategic about where value shows up, made sure customers could see it the moment they walked in, and used the loyalty data they already have to keep their best customers close.