The big grocery shelves sit with a short list.
About 280 grocery companies with 500 or more staff run about 22,000 stores, 35% of the country's 62,600. Gas station stores look the same: about 220 companies run about 33,900 of about 96,500.
Enquirer Consulting Group
Buyer Map: US Beverage Buyers, Drink Barcode
Prepared for Mubarak Malik | Drink Barcode | October 2026
As of counts read Oct 1, 2026 from a public federal file
Your site sells Barcode online, lists stores on its store locator and takes wholesale inquiries. This page counts the US businesses that stock a drink like it: stores, gyms, wholesalers and pro sports teams, by company size and by state. Every number comes from one public federal file.
Supermarkets and grocery stores
62,600
Run by about 38,500 companies. About 280 companies with 500 or more staff run about 22,000 of them.
Convenience stores, with or without gas
133,000
About 96,500 of them sit at gas stations, and about 220 companies with 500 or more staff run about 33,900 of those.
Gyms, fitness and sports centers
40,800
Run by about 33,200 companies. 84% of those companies have fewer than 20 staff.
Vitamin and supplement stores
8,630
10 companies with 500 or more staff run about 2,270 of them, 26%.
Who buys, by segment
A company is the business. A location is one store, gym or site with paid staff, so a chain counts once as a company and once for every location it runs.
| Segment | Roles to look for (our reading, not counted) | Companies | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gyms, fitness and sports centers | Owner or general manager; at a chain, the purchasing or retail lead | 33,200 | 40,800 |
| Vitamin and supplement stores | Owner; at a chain, the category buyer | 5,450 | 8,630 |
| Supermarkets and grocery stores | Beverage category manager or buyer; the owner at a single store | 38,500 | 62,600 |
| Convenience stores | Category manager at a chain; the owner at a single store | 34,200 | 36,400 |
| Gas stations with a convenience store | Category manager at a chain; the owner or operator at a single site | 52,900 | 96,500 |
| Broadline grocery wholesalers | Category manager or purchasing lead | 2,640 | 3,290 |
| Specialty grocery and beverage wholesalers | Owner, brand manager or purchasing lead | 10,700 | 14,800 |
| Pro and semi-pro sports teams | Director of performance, sports nutrition lead, head athletic trainer | 1,290 | 1,370 |
Chains and independents
Company size is paid staff across the whole company. Each segment looks very different from either end.
| Segment | Companies under 20 staff | Companies with 500 or more staff | Locations those larger companies run | Share of the segment's locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gyms, fitness and sports centers | 28,000 | 260 | 5,590 | 14% |
| Vitamin and supplement stores | 5,210 | 10 | 2,270 | 26% |
| Supermarkets and grocery stores | 30,500 | 280 | 22,000 | 35% |
| Convenience stores | 33,200 | 59 | 1,270 | 3% |
| Gas stations with a convenience store | 49,300 | 220 | 33,900 | 35% |
| Broadline grocery wholesalers | 2,200 | 67 | 640 | 20% |
| Specialty grocery and beverage wholesalers | 9,110 | 210 | 3,860 | 26% |
| Pro and semi-pro sports teams | 920 | 74 | 140 | 10% |
Where the locations are: eight states hold about 48% of them
Store and gym locations in the eight states with the most, largest first. Wholesalers and teams are left out of this table.
| State | Gyms, fitness and sports | Vitamin and supplement | Grocery | Convenience, with or without gas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 5,240 | 1,080 | 8,030 | 9,790 |
| Texas | 3,290 | 810 | 3,660 | 13,600 |
| New York | 2,520 | 530 | 8,440 | 7,700 |
| Florida | 2,750 | 730 | 3,820 | 8,860 |
| Georgia | 1,170 | 330 | 1,760 | 6,590 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,610 | 290 | 2,570 | 4,660 |
| Illinois | 1,630 | 290 | 2,480 | 4,300 |
| North Carolina | 1,420 | 270 | 1,960 | 4,880 |
Where the openings are
10 companies run 26% of supplement stores.
10 companies with 500 or more staff run about 2,270 of the 8,630 vitamin and supplement stores. Your FAQ describes Barcode as a way to sip your supplements naturally.
The gym segment is mostly small companies.
84% of the 33,200 companies running gyms, fitness and sports centers have fewer than 20 staff. At the other end, about 260 companies with 500 or more staff run about 5,590 locations. Your site makes its case for Barcode before a workout.
Pro and semi-pro teams are a list of about 1,290.
Your About page says Barcode was developed inside a pro team and first given to its players. Pro and semi-pro team companies across all sports number about 1,290, and 74 of them have 500 or more staff.
Denominators, definitions and sources
- Companies and locations come from the federal count of businesses by industry and company size, 2022, 50 states and DC. A company is all the businesses under common ownership; a location is one physical site with paid employees. A company's size is its paid staff across all of its businesses in the mid-March 2022 pay period, so a large company with only a few locations in a segment still counts as 500 or more, and a company with no paid staff in that pay period sits in the smallest band. A company with locations in more than one segment is counted once in each, which is why company counts are not added across rows.
- Gyms, fitness and sports centers include health clubs, gyms and fitness studios along with skating rinks, swimming pools and tennis clubs; the file does not separate them. Vitamin and supplement stores sell vitamins and nutrition supplements. Convenience stores are counted apart from gas stations with a convenience store. Specialty grocery and beverage wholesalers include soft drink, bottled water and juice wholesalers alongside other specialty foods such as bakery and canned goods; the file does not separate beverage wholesalers. Broadline grocery wholesalers carry a general line of groceries. Pro and semi-pro sports teams cover baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer and other sports.
- The state table counts locations in each state from the same file; across all 50 states and DC its four columns add back to the national totals above.
- What Barcode is and how it sells are as listed on drinkbarcode.com on Oct 1, 2026. Figures of 100 or more are rounded on purpose: to the nearest ten below 1,000 and to three significant figures from 1,000 up. Percentages are worked from the unrounded counts. None is the size of any one opportunity.
The named version of this page, the actual companies inside a row, is built one row at a time. Reply on the thread, or write to my colleague Matthew, who is your point of contact from here: matthew@enquirerai.com.
Enquirer Consulting Group | enquirerconsulting.com