Sheetz Bets $1 Billion on Indiana While Traffic Woes Persist

Sheetz plans to spend nearly $1 billion opening 100 stores in Indiana over the next decade — even as its own executive admits customer traffic has been a multi-year problem for the whole convenience channel.

Ryan Sheetz, executive vice president of marketing and supply chain for the Altoona, Pennsylvania-based retailer, laid out the stakes at the 2026 NACS Show: "What's been playing out here is a problem that's been impacting our business easily for the last few years: customer traffic. That's something that impacts all of us, whether you're a small operator, a medium operator or a big national guy … really dire things are at play here."

That's a candid admission from a chain of more than 850 stores across seven states. The company's answer, at least publicly, is growth: Midwest expansion, a reinforced East Coast presence — especially in Pennsylvania, where it fights rival Wawa — and a broader in-store assortment to pull customers inside. Note what's missing: no traffic-recovery metric, no timeline for reversing the trend.

Super regional chains like Sheetz are drawing attention for how tightly they tie their brands to local communities through products and customer engagement. That connection, observers say, lets them compete not just with national c-store chains but with QSR brands. Community ties are an asset, but they don't pay for a billion-dollar buildout on their own.

How big is the Indiana bet?

In April, Sheetz announced it will enter Indiana in 2027, investing nearly $1 billion to open 100 stores over 10 years — roughly $10 million per store, or about 10 new locations per year. President and CEO Travis Sheetz said the retailer had drawn "a significant number of inquiries" from residents eager to see it arrive.

Five months later, the company revealed its first Indiana site will sit in Indianapolis' North Central neighborhood and open late next summer. It won't get an easy landing: a Thorntons, Circle K, Shell, GetGo Cafe + Market and Wawa all operate nearby. Sheetz's move also underscores a broader industry pattern — operators from multiple regions keep planting flags in the Hoosier State.

The takeaway: Sheetz is paying a premium to enter one of the most contested c-store markets in the country.

What about Michigan and Ohio?

Sheetz announced its Michigan expansion in late 2022 and debuted there in August 2024, with plans for 50 to 60 stores over five to six years as part of a $500 million investment. Earlier this year, it said it intends to open 14 new locations in 2026 in the Detroit metro area — where its only four state locations sat at the time. Its website now lists 15 Michigan stores, all on the far eastern side of the state near Detroit and Ann Arbor.

On Sept. 29, Sheetz opened a new food manufacturing and distribution center in Findlay, Ohio, three years in the making. The originally announced $145 million price tag has jumped to $169 million — a 17% overrun. Operations began Oct. 11, and the company expects the facility to create more than 750 jobs over the next five years. It's Sheetz's third such center, joining Claysburg, Pennsylvania, and Burlington, North Carolina, and it supports the company's 143 Ohio stores.

"As we continue our ambitious growth across the state and region, this facility will help us serve more customers, create new opportunities for our communities and bring our all-in-one convenience experience to even more people," Travis Sheetz said in the announcement.

The takeaway: Ohio now has the supply-chain backbone to absorb a much larger store network.

Is new food enough to fix traffic?

Alongside real estate, Sheetz has pushed foodservice innovation this year. The moves include:

• Buzz Beanz (August): its first ready-to-drink energy coffee line, in five flavors — chocolate banana, blueberry muffin, cinnamon churro, mocha and chocolate peanut butter.
• Fall menu (August): $5 milkshakes in pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake and cereal chiller flavors, plus pumpkin chai, pumpkin cold foam, pumpkin Sh'pice canned iced coffee, a s'mores tray, Sh'pice cookies and blueberry açaí smoothie cups.
• Big Pig return (October): the barbecue pork sandwich phased out six years ago came back nationwide Oct. 28 in six variations, including Big BBQ Classic with barbecue sauce, red onions and pickle chips; Big BBQ Goldie with Carolina Gold sauce, crispy onions and pickles; and Big BBQ Onion.

Grab-and-go caffeine and nostalgia pork are defensible plays for luring visits. Whether they move the traffic needle that Ryan Sheetz called "dire" is a question 2027's numbers will have to answer.