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Meet the upscale gas station

April 4, 2012 |FORTUNE | By Dan Mitchell.

It's hard to imagine that gas stations will become "the next Whole Foods." But making them less unpleasant would be good business.

-- A new report concludes that gas-station convenience stores should go "upscale" to boost business, a notion that might sound counterintuitive given the industry's slim profit margins as well as the fact that most shoppers at such stores are in a hurry.

Problem is shoppers increasingly swipe their credit cards at the pump, never entering the store at all. That means fewer impulse purchases of Doritos, Mountain Dew and Kenny Loggins compilation albums. Turning a gas-station shop into more of a destination by, for example, offering fresh foods, can boost bottom lines, according to the report (pdf) prepared by the Association for Convenience and Fuel Retailing and the Coca-Cola (KO) Retailing Research Council and presented Wednesday in Chicago.