National retail diesel hits record $5.85 a gallon, up about $2.10 since the Iran strikes
The AAA national average for retail diesel was $5.85 a gallon on Friday, an all-time high. It broke the old record of $5.82 set in June 2022, a few months after Russia invaded Ukraine. The last four days did most of the work.
A day before Friday's print, diesel was $5.7832, itself the highest since military action against Iran began at the start of March. The Friday before those attacks and the Iranian counterattacks, the AAA average was $3.758. So the pump is up roughly $2.10 a gallon since then.
For haulers and jobbers, that is a straight hit to the cost of moving anything. For c-store operators, high street prices can squeeze fuel margins when wholesale runs ahead of what drivers will tolerate at the dispenser. Watch whether retail holds this level or the board starts giving cents back.
OnCue's food win
OnCue was named the No. 1 Best Gas Station for Food in Reviewed's 2026 Readers' Choice Awards. Reviewed screened c-store food programs around the country, cut the field to 10 finalists, then put it to a reader vote. OnCue took it.
The chain runs more than 75 stores across Oklahoma and Texas, with its in-house program, The Grill, at dozens of them. The Grill does burgers, breakfast tacos and pizza, ordered on an in-store touchscreen or online. Reviewed also called out the roller grill, daily bakery deliveries and the coffee.
The read for operators is simple. Prepared food is where c-stores make money that the pump no longer gives them reliably, and a made-to-order kitchen with its own ordering screens is the model the majors have been chasing. OnCue winning a national reader vote out of a regional footprint says the food, not the fuel, is pulling the trips.
Kroger in Hartland
Hartland Township in Michigan approved a gas station and convenience store from Kroger, per the Livingston Daily. It is one site, but it is a grocer putting fuel and a store on the forecourt rather than just running a loyalty-linked pump program.
For an independent operator in that trade area, a Kroger box with grocery pricing power and an existing fuel-points base next door is real competition for the fill-up and the inside sale both.
What to watch
Whether diesel holds near $5.85 or eases as the four-day run cools, since that sets the margin math for operators carrying it. Whether OnCue's award translates into other regional chains leaning harder into made-to-order kitchens. And how many more Kroger fuel-and-store approvals show up in township minutes this fall.