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Albany County, NY — Convenience stores Saturation

How many convenience stores exist per person present — residents plus daytime workers — by ZIP code, compared with the U.S. average. Establishment data: Census ZBP 2023. Population: ACS 2024 5-year. 47 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Convenience stores · Corner stores · Small-format food & fuel marts. Counted together because official statistics use one 445120 code.

Measured density: Range spans bands — 2.00× the U.S. rate (between 2.00× and 3.31× once withheld ZIP cells are counted)

Why a range: Census does not publish a ZIP-by-industry count when that ZIP has 0–2 businesses. 35 ZIP cells in this county are withheld, 23 of them with residents. Each could hold 0, 1, or 2 businesses: counting them all as 0 gives the low end, counting them all as 2 gives the high end — the data cannot say where the truth sits. The density range uses only the populated cells, since ZIPs without residents are excluded from per-person rates. How ranges work

Range spans the U.S. rate   Albany County convenience stores — 200–331% of the U.S. rate

70 convenience stores are counted in Albany County — 1.8 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 200% of the U.S. rate of 0.9.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has risen 20% between 2015 and 2023 (49 → 59). That set is smaller than today's county total. 2020–2021 were pandemic-distorted, and Census rounds counts, so small moves are within noise.

Measured supply density is highest in 12210 (Albany), 12206 (Albany), 12202 (Albany) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 12208 (Albany), 12110 (Latham), 12205 (Albany).

Census County Business Patterns (2023) puts the county-wide count at 78 establishments, including locations in ZIP codes that do not map to a ZCTA — so it can run slightly above the sum of the ZIP rows on this page. It is annual, so it lags more than QCEW.

Measured density: Albany County sits at 200% of the U.S. rate for convenience stores. 23 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 200% and 331% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 12210 and 12206; the lowest measured density is in 12208 and 12110.

This is a supply-side read: it counts existing convenience stores and the people present, not foot traffic, income, rent, or whether locals want more. Treat low density as a question to check, not an answer.

Convenience stores
70–140
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (35 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
1.8
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
0.9
per 10,000 present
County index
2.00×
vs. U.S.
Latest year (CBP)
78
2023 — $6M annual payroll
Residents
295,619
35 ZIPs with data
Workers
175,518
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
319,964
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
+1.9%
+5,940 people
Net migration 2024
+2,105
international +3,095, domestic −990
Jobs located here
245,030
LODES 2022, +1.2% since 2019

Albany County had an estimated 319,964 residents on July 1, 2024 — 1.9% more than in 2020 (+5,940). In the latest year it gained 1,964 people: births minus deaths −141, international migration +3,095, domestic migration −990. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

245,030 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (+1.2% since 2019), and 145,606 employed residents lived there (−2.0% since 2019). LODES counts wage and salary jobs covered by unemployment insurance plus federal jobs; it excludes the self-employed and military, and counts jobs rather than unique people. 2019→2022 spans the pandemic, so read it as one change, not a trend.

Population and migration say whether the customer base is growing. They do not say whether people want another business of this type. Definitions and limits →  ·  Full county detail →

ZIP gaining residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
12211 Albany
+30.9%
12183 Troy
+14.6%
12047 Cohoes
+10.2%
ZIP losing residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change

No ZIP had a statistically significant decrease.

ACS 5-year estimates for 2015–2019 and 2020–2024. Only ZIPs with at least 2,000 residents in both windows and a change larger than the survey margin of error (90%) are listed — small ZIPs move a lot on paper without a real signal.

Nonemployer businesses

Not shown. Census publishes convenience stores only combined with vending machine operators, so a convenience-only nonemployer count is not published.

Census Nonemployer Statistics 2024 (NAICS 2022). We do not approximate this figure.

Saturation map

Each ZIP area is shaded by its density of this business type per person present (residents + workers) vs. the U.S. average. Click any ZIP to zoom to its boundary, see its numbers, and switch to aerial imagery. Individual mapped shops appear as dots at street level — Show locations zooms you in to them (scroll or double-click to zoom).

Basemap:
Under 50% 50–100% 100–150% 150–250% 250%+ 0–2 (not published) / no data ZIP total (dot size) Mapped shop (OpenStreetMap, street level)

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, tiles by OpenFreeMap.

White dots are ZIP totals from the official Census count — the bigger the dot, the more convenience stores in that ZIP. They are aggregated, not individual shops. Turquoise dots are individual locations mapped in OpenStreetMap, shown only at street level; they are crowd-sourced and indicative, may be incomplete, and do not equal the official counts. Only the official ZIP totals feed the saturation index.

Market trend — up 20% since 2015

Number of convenience stores in Albany County across 2015–2023, on a consistent set of ZIP codes present in every year — so changes are real, not ZIP-boundary artifacts. 2015/2018 are pre-pandemic baselines; 2020/2021 are COVID-distorted.

49
2015
52
2018
60
2020
65
2021
59
2022
59
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
12210 Albany
902%
12206 Albany
878%
12202 Albany
760%
12209 Albany
395%
12189 Watervliet
327%
12054 Delmar
176%
12047 Cohoes
171%
12203 Albany
164%
12205 Albany
102%
12110 Latham
96%
12208 Albany
95%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
12208 Albany
95%
12110 Latham
96%
12205 Albany
102%
12203 Albany
164%
12047 Cohoes
171%
12054 Delmar
176%
12189 Watervliet
327%
12209 Albany
395%
12202 Albany
760%
12206 Albany
878%
12210 Albany
902%
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few convenience stores may simply lack foot traffic, retail space, or demand. We rank only residential and mixed ZIPs here; employment hubs and visitor destinations are listed separately below. ZIPs where Census did not publish a count (0–2 businesses) are not ranked: they may be the least served of all, but the data cannot tell 0 from 1 or 2. Verify those locally.

Employment hubs & destinations

These ZIPs have far more workers (or visitors) than residents, so their counts are driven by daytime and visitor demand — not a place to read "shortage" from resident numbers alone.

ZIPNeighborhoodType ResidentsWorkersConvenience storesIndex
12207Albany Employment hub 1,98812,527 4 531%

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

All ZIP codes

Click a column header to sort. Index = convenience stores per 10,000 people present (residents + 0.5×workers) ÷ the U.S. average. 100% = exactly average.

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersConvenience stores Per 10kIndexStatus
12210Albany 10,2973,659 10 8.2 902% Very high density
12206Albany 14,5728,259 15 8.0 878% Very high density
12202Albany 10,1662,702 8 6.9 760% Very high density
12207Albany 1,98812,527 4 4.8 531% Very high density
12209Albany 10,626886 4 3.6 395% Very high density
12189Watervliet 18,6562,880 6 3.0 327% Very high density
12054Delmar 17,4362,397 3 1.6 176% High density
12047Cohoes 23,5324,035 4 1.6 171% High density
12203Albany 30,77118,450 6 1.5 164% High density
12205Albany 25,83834,199 4 0.9 102% Above average
12110Latham 20,08128,503 3 0.9 96% Below average
12208Albany 23,28922,581 3 0.9 95% Below average
12007Alcove 33120 0–2 — — Not published
12009Altamont 7,9342,463 0–2 — — Not published
12023Berne 1,79181 0–2 — — Not published
12041Clarksville 46814 0–2 — — Not published
12045Coeymans 207145 0–2 — — Not published
12046Coeymans Hollow 35829 0–2 — — Not published
12055Dormansville —9 0–2 — — Not published
12059East Berne 1,53056 0–2 — — Not published
12067Feura Bush 1,165667 0–2 — — Not published
12077Glenmont 7,0173,846 0–2 — — Not published
12084Guilderland 5,3281,600 0–2 — — Not published
12085Guilderland Center 357699 0–2 — — Not published
12120Medusa 6006 0–2 — — Not published
12143Ravena 5,6641,034 0–2 — — Not published
12147Rensselaerville 46631 0–2 — — Not published
12158Selkirk 5,8782,160 0–2 — — Not published
12159Slingerlands 8,1632,849 0–2 — — Not published
12183Troy 2,9701,417 0–2 — — Not published
12186Voorheesville 6,512935 0–2 — — Not published
12193Westerlo 1,746227 0–2 — — Not published
12201Albany —780 0–2 — — Not published
12204Albany 7,8126,580 0–2 — — Not published
12211Albany 14,3838,527 0–2 — — Not published
12212Albany —228 0–2 — — Not published
12220Albany —70 0–2 — — Not published
12222Albany 6,8891,034 0–2 — — Not published
12223Albany —579 0–2 — — Not published
12224Albany —16 0–2 — — Not published
12226Albany 013 0–2 — — Not published
12240Albany —115 0–2 — — Not published
12242Albany —127 0–2 — — Not published
12250Albany —139 0–2 — — Not published
12260Albany —146 0–2 — — Not published
12288Albany —3 0–2 — — Not published
12469Preston Hollow 79820 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Albany

The numbers above tell you how the market looks. To find a specific storefront, these marketplaces list available retail space for lease.

LoopNet
Largest commercial marketplace
Browse Albany retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Albany retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Albany retail space →

Open vacancy data (actual empty units) is only published by some cities; where it exists we show it directly. Listings above are third-party.

Census withholds some ZIP-by-industry cells to protect small businesses. 0–2 means the cell was not published (Census publishes industry counts only at 3+ per ZIP), so the ZIP is left unranked rather than counted as zero. ~ means the count is estimated from the broader industry group and can be off by a business or two.

Follow Albany County and convenience stores

When a data vintage changes or a section of this report is revised, we post it to a public update feed. No email address, no account, no tracking — and nothing is sent unless something actually changed.

Subscribe to updates (RSS) How these numbers are built →

Methodology & sources

Establishments. U.S. Census ZIP Code Business Patterns (ZBP 2023), NAICS 445120 — convenience retailers. Counts establishments with paid employees. ZBP is published annually with a ~2-year lag.

Fresh county signal. This industry has no clean QCEW series, so the freshest county signal is Census County Business Patterns 2023: 78 establishments and $6M in annual payroll county-wide. This count includes locations in ZIP codes that do not map to a ZCTA, so it can be slightly higher than the sum of the ZIP rows. CBP is annual and slower than QCEW. It cannot be broken down by ZIP.

Population. U.S. Census American Community Survey 2024 5-year ZCTA population (table B01003). Workers are the ZIP's total employment from the same 2023 ZBP file.

Demand ("people present"). Demand comes from residents and daytime workers: residents + 0.5 × workers. This is the single documented assumption in the model and can be tuned.

Index. index = (ZIP establishments ÷ ZIP demand × 10,000) ÷ the U.S. average for this industry (0.91 per 10,000 present). It is a supply-side density measure; it does not capture income, rent, tourism, or whether locals actually want more.

Read the full methodology →  ·  Data sources & vintages →

BizGapMap — free, no-login small-business saturation reports for major U.S. counties. Built entirely from public U.S. Census, BLS, and IRS data (ZBP 2023, ACS 2024 5-year, PEP 2024, LODES, QCEW, IRS SOI). No forecasts, no revenue guesses — withheld cells are marked, and the few derived counts are labelled as estimates.