What's In Store: Openings & Closings

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.

Here are the latest company spotlights:

7-Eleven Inc.
A 7-Eleven opened on the west side of Baltimore's downtown at 301 N. Howard St., according to the Baltimore Sun. The grand opening event included entertainment and discounted drinks. This is the 44th Baltimore location for the Dallas-based company.

Casey’s General Stores Inc.
A new Casey’s General Store is coming to Murray, Iowa, this summer. The new store will be located near a school, and will offer pizza and fuel pumps with both diesel and gas, according to the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune. The Iowa-based company currently has 1,728 stores located mainly in the Midwest.

Murray Mayor Nik Werner said he hopes the store will be open by June or July of this year.

Casey’s is also purchasing a three-acre corner property in Beloit, Wis. at 2240 Cranston Road.

Casey’s CFO Bill Walljasper said the store will be a larger store, standing at about 4,200 square feet, and the company’s newest floor plan, featuring a coffee bar, self-serve ice cream, made to order sandwiches, pizza and more.

Pilot Travel Centers
A Pilot Travel Center, located off Interstate 95, Exit 1 on St. Mary’s Road in Georgia, opened its doors this week and is slated for a grand opening April 9. The business will provide 75 local jobs and is expected to garner $5.4 million in state and local tax revenues each year. The new location is the Knoxville, Tenn.-based company’s 32nd station in the state.

The travel center features 14 diesel lanes, 18 gasoline lanes, two RV lanes and high-speed pumps for quicker refueling. The center will also house a Subway, quick shopping options and a casual dining option that will serve hot meals, salads, sandwiches, frozen yogurt, pizza, hot dogs and coffee selections.

Sheetz Inc.
Based in Altoona, Pa., Sheetz Inc. will open a 6,800-square-foot store in Kernersville, N.C., at N.C. 66 and Shields Road by the end of next month, and will also look to open two more stores in Winston-Salem — one at Country Club Road and Meadowlark Drive and another at Union Cross and Glenn Hi Roads, Journal Now reported.

All three stores will have a restaurant, drive-thru and a car wash, and will have approximately 40 full- or part-time employees. Sheetz currently has 50 stores in North Carolina, including three in Forsyth County.

Anthony Foderaro, real-estate site selector for Sheetz, said while the stores are not a done deal, company officials are excited about the possibility of opening new stores in Forsyth County. He said that Sheetz is still looking for its next site, according to the report.

“We’re not done in Forsyth County,” Foderaro said. “We’re not done in Winston-Salem. We’re not done in North Carolina.”

Stewart Shops
The Maple Street Sugarcreek Store in Potsdam, N.Y., at 26 Maple St. changed over to a Stewart's Shop, last week, and will be in a state of transition for a while as the store takes on the look and feel of the Stewart's brand, according to a report by North Country Now. Stewart's Shops Marketing Manager Tom Mailey confirmed the store was changing over in a phone message to the newspaper, and indicated other Sugarcreek stores may have been acquired by the franchise; however, he did not provide further details.

The first Stewart’s Shop opened in 1945, and the chain, based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., now operates more than 300 stores across upstate New York and southern Vermont.

 

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