Murphy USA Inc.

Serving approximately 1.6 million customers per day, Murphy USA operates more than 1,400 stores under the Murphy USA and Murphy Express banners, according to the company. Murphy USA stations are typically located near Walmart stores as part of a now-defunct partnership, while Murphy Express stores are stand-alone stations. Murphy USA stations tend to be smaller, kiosk-format stores, while Murphy Express stations are larger convenience stores.

In early 2016, the Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart ended its 20-year relationship with Murphy USA, announcing that going forward the big-box retailer would build and operate its own gas stations. Murphy USA will continue to run the more than 1,000 branded locations it already has in Walmart parking lots.

Murphy USA’s competitive advantage is its high-volume, low-cost operations at its kiosks, which are positioned in the marketplace as a destination for fuel and cigarettes, offering competitive pricing and speed of service. Murphy is also notable for its category-management excellence. Several of its category managers have won CSP’s Category Manager of the Year awards in their respective categories.

Source: Convenience Digital Resource Library, Technomic. For benchmarking purposes, store counts are year-end 2017.

Photo courtesy of Nicholas Eckhart.