Openings of supermarket pumps slow decline of service stations in France

France currently has under 11,500 fuel stations which compares to about 40,000 service stations in 1980, according to a recent poll by the French Union of Oil Industries (Union francaise des industries petrolieres) published by AutoPlus.

The rate of closings has been slowed thanks mostly to supermarket filling stations openings, according to a mid-March report by AutoPlus.

“During all of last year a total of 172 of the so-called ‘traditional’ stations closed while at the same time 52 supermarket (fuel stations) were created. That is a negative balance of 120 and the consolation is that this is a lot less than the closings during the 1980s,” AutoPlus said.