Sheetz is an American gas station and convenience store chain concentrated in seven Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states with over 829 locations in 493 cities. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index 2025 Convenience Store Study, the company recently tied with Wawa for second place as the best U.S. convenience store. The largest number of Sheetz locations are in its home state of Pennsylvania, where 316, or 38% of all Sheetz stores are based. After Pennsylvania, the next most Sheetz-populous state is North Carolina with 142 stores, followed by Ohio with 135, Virginia with 124, West Virginia with 61, Maryland with 44, and Michigan with seven stores.
The name Sheetz goes back to Jerry Sheets, who married a woman from a family that owned a large dairy business in Altoona, Pennsylvania. When his nametag was misspelled as “Sheetz” as he attended a dairy conference, he liked it enough to officially change his last name to Sheetz. The Sheetz business empire traces its roots to 1952, when Jerry’s son Bob purchased one of Jerry’s unprofitable dairy stores located in Altoona and founded the Sheetz company. Altoona remains the home of Sheetz to this day.
The Sheetz family owns and operates the company with a 90% share, while the employees own the rest through an employee stock ownership plan. Sheetz family members at the helm include Travis Sheetz as president and CEO, Joe Sheetz as chairman of the board, and Stan Sheetz as board director, with additional family members in positions like EVP of operations, EVP of marketing and supply chain, and EVP of strategy and information technology.
What else should you know about Sheetz?
Some Sheetz milestones include the first self-service gas pumps in 1973, the introduction of its Made To Order, or MTO, menu in the mid-1980s, and its memorable “Free My Beer” campaign, which successfully led to the state of Pennsylvania allowing the sale of beer in convenience stores that also sold gasoline in 2016. Sheetz will also let you charge your EV at certain locations that have had chargers installed.
The journey from a single store to the current count of 829 took 74 years and the efforts of numerous members of the Sheetz family. Bob’s brother Steve had the idea to expand the Sheetz venture in 1969, and by 1972, there were 14 Sheetz stores. By 1983, Sheetz boasted 100 stores, and Bob turned over the business to Steve. By 1995, Bob’s son, Stan, became president of Sheetz. Stan added Sheetz-branded coffee and bakery products to the stores’ lineups, as well as a touchscreen ordering system. In 2013, Joe S. Sheetz, who was Bob’s nephew, became president and CEO, succeeded by current CEO Travis Sheetz in 2022.
Sheetz gas stations and convenience stores continue to expand their empire, far from their original location in Altoona, Pennsylvania. A newly opened Sheetz location in Macomb County, Michigan, recently dropped its gas price below $2 as a way to generate local customer traffic. It may take some time before gas prices get that low again.
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