What's In Store: Love's, Spinx, Thorntons & Wawa

NATIONAL REPORT — The convenience store industry landscape is constantly changing as chains open and close stores each week. On a regular basis, Convenience Store News highlights these comings and goings in this special roundup.

Garrett's Family Market

Garrett's Family Market hosted a virtual ribbon cutting celebration via Facebook Live for its new Centerville, Ma., convenience store on Sept. 24. A socially distanced grand opening celebration was held on Oct. 3.

A one-stop convenience store, Garrett's Family Market is located at 1617 Falmouth Rd. Owned by parent company Volta Oil, the store is open every day from 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. and features five self-service gasoline pumps, one offering diesel.

The new store also offers a bean-to-cup coffee program, including nitro and cold brew coffees; handcrafted and all-natural organic signature fountain and frozen drinks; craveable fresh, hot foods including calzones, Barnyard Subs and breakfast sandwiches; and freshly baked goods.

The store also features indoor and outdoor seating six feet apart and outlets for charging, as well as free Wi-Fi.

Love's Travel Stops

Love's Travel Stops is now serving customers at a new truck stop in Boron, Calif. Measuring more than 12,000 square feet, the location adds 79 truck parking spaces to Kern County.

Open 24 hours, the location's amenities include a Carl's Jr., 81 car parking spaces, seven RV parking spaces, eight diesel bays, eight showers, laundry facilities, a Fresh Kitchen concept, a CAT scale and a dog park.

The Boron store also features a Love's Truck Care with on-site Speedco.

Pilot Co.

Pilot Co. welcomed customers back to a Pilot Travel Center in Gila Bend, Ariz., following the completion of a ground-up rebuild.

"We're thrilled to return to Gila Bend and serve the people living, working and traveling through Maricopa County with a clean and newly rebuilt all-in-one fuel stop," said Ken Parent, president of Pilot. "On behalf of our team members in Gila Bend, we are honored to celebrate the reopening with a contribution to the local school district. We look forward to providing excellent service and value with the fuel, refreshments and amenities that professional drivers and motorists need while on the road."

This Pilot Travel Center offers many amenities, including 70 truck parking spaces, 10 gasoline fueling positions and eight diesel lanes with high-speed pumps, seven showers, a driver's lounge and a public laundry.

On the foodservice side, the travel center features Subway, Mama DeLuca's and grab-and-go offerings.

The Spinx Co.

The Spinx Co. celebrated the grand re-opening of the Spinx #138 store in Greenville, S.C. on Sept. 24. Located at 1519 Whitehorse Road, the new store now features a full-service kitchen.

The newly reopened convenience store offers Spinx's legendary fried chicken, breakfast biscuits and chicken sandwiches served fresh all day. Also, at this location, Spinx is serving made-to-order milkshakes, smoothies and soft serve ice cream in addition to its wide offering of ice-cold fountain drinks, lemonade, iced tea, slushies and "chewy ice." Hot beverages, including bean-to-cup fresh coffee, are also available.

Thorntons

Thorntons welcomed two new convenience stores to its network. The retailer opened a location in Warrenville, Ill., on Sept. 15 and one in Antioch, Tenn., on Aug. 25.

The retailer's first location in Warrenville measures 5,500 square feet and sits on more than eight acres. The store's amenities include LED lighting, 20 auto fueling positions and five diesel lanes, burritos and sandwiches prepared on site daily and self-checkout.

The Antioch store is the third new Thorntons in Tennessee since August 2019. The 4,400-square-foot facility is 17 miles southeast of downtown Nashville. Its amenities include LED lighting, 16 pumps for regular and diesel fuel, burritos and sandwiches prepared on site daily, doughnuts made fresh and delivered daily from the company's Louisville, Ky.-based commissary, Fresh Serve Bakeries and self-checkout.

Trillium

Trillium opened two compressed natural gas (CNG) locations in California in September.

"We are seeing strong, rising demand from customers in California for CNG," said JP Fjeld-Hansen, vice president of Trillium. "To meet that demand, we're focused on adding more stations and committed to providing fueling options that will benefit the environment."

The two newly opened locations are both located at Love's Travel Stops:

• 21948 Highway 46, Lost Hills, Calif.
• 2000 East Tehachapi Blvd., Tehachapi, Calif.

The public fast-fill stations have two heavy-duty and two light-duty fueling nozzles, providing infrastructure for multiple vehicle types. The stations offer CNG fueling capabilities to fleet customers fed by renewable natural gas.

In addition to opening two locations in September, Trillium opened a public CNG station in Los Angeles at the 1055 N. Alameda St. Trillium now owns or operates more than 45 public and private CNG fueling stations in California.