ST. LOUIS -- A recent 650-mile roundtrip from Chicago to St. Louis (and beyond) provided a welcome opportunity to sample the best and most ho-hum the convenience store industry has to offer. This time, the greetings upon entering the stores were mostly nonexistence, but foodservice and store design were repeatedly inviting.
Along the way, I got a taste of the Mother Road--Old Route 66--as a part of Americana at its most genuine and celebrated. Let's take a look:
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SOUTHBOUND
Store: Casey's General Store, Diamond, Ill.
Greeting: "Hi!"
Gasoline price (regular unleaded): $3.479
Food eaten: A slice of sausage pizza ($1.99). Really quite good! I would have welcomed a second slice.
Comments: Many Casey's stores dot the landscape between Chicago and St. Louis. This one, chosen at random, is an older store design, and the small-town feel reflects the surroundings and Casey's obvious knack for knowing its market and consumers.
Store: Fast Stop, Towanda, Ill.
Greeting: None, but the clerk was very nice on checkout.
Gasoline price: $3.459
Food eaten: None.
Comments: Wide but shallow, this utilitarian (prefab?) site is most remarkable for what it used to be--home to the Delco/Pure Oil truckstop--and its location along old Route 66. With historic markers and part of the old road still there to be walked or biked, roadtrippers with historic wanderlust can envision the promise the Mother Road once held. The stretch of fast-disintegrating old road is dotted with signs noting Route 66's stretch through each state from Illinois to California, as well as recreations of the old Burma Shave serial signage that used to dot the landscape.
Store: Jumpin Jimmy's, Farmersville, Ill.
Greeting: None, but the clerk has a line of three customers as I entered.
Gasoline price: $3.499
Food eaten: Cheddar dog from the roller grill ($1.39; two for $2). Very good!
Comments: I imagine this was a pretty forward-thinking site at one point, with a large lot and a dedication to foodservice (roller grill, hot sandwiches, coffee and fountain front and center; a Subway cobrand attached; and pizza made to order). But time and lack of upkeep has taken its toll on the building and signage. One strong point: friendly service. As I (and three or four others) waited in line to check out, customers joked with each other and store staff. Clearly this store has numerous frequent customers who feel at home here.
Store: Express Mart, Hillsboro, Mo.
Greeting: "Hi."
Gasoline price: $3.199
Food eaten: Two eggrolls from the roller grill and frozen vanilla latte ($3.19). An employee promised me the eggrolls tasted like they were straight from a Chinese restaurant. I'd say, "pretty close."
Comments: At 5,200 square feet, the sheer size of this place is its most remarkable feature. Everything about the site says "wow!"
RETURN TRIP
Store: U-Gas/Gigi's Fresh Cafe, Barnhart, Mo.
Greeting: "Hello, how are you?"
Gasoline price: $3.399
Food eaten: None. Not that there wasn't plenty of good-looking options to choose from, I just wasn't ready to eat.
Comments: C-stores appear to be experiencing a renaissance in the just-south-of-St. Louis area. This store, like the one above, is well over 5,000 square feet and packed with alluring products and displays. I loved the "Party Center": a beer cave, aisle after aisle of beer, wine, liquor and mixers. Gigi's Fresh Cafe is an appealing alternative to many c-store food offers. Set apart from the main store, it feels like a separate concept underscoring its "fresh" offer of sandwiches, rustic pizzas and salads.
Store: Shea's Gas Station, Springfield, Ill.
Greeting: "You can take all the pictures you want outside, but if you want to go inside, it's gonna cost you $3."
Gasoline price (regular leaded): $0.219
Food eaten: None.
Comments: OK, this isn't a working gas station, but it used to be! This is Shea's Gas Station Museum, a tourism site along old Route 66 and an interesting stop if you're in the area. Bill Shea operated a gas station on (or near) this location for more than four decades. He sold his last gallon of gasoline in 1982 and soon after began collecting petroliana in his former store, which is now packed to the gills with old gas pumps and ATMs, gasoline brand signs and uniforms, even those big old fans that used to run constantly in the corner of gas stations to keep them cool. (Having visited on a 100-degree day in July, I can reliably tell you, they still don't work.) A visit here does offer some insight into the gasoline-retailing industry, but you're likely to walk away knowing just as much about 90-year-old Bill Shea, a decorated World War II veteran, businessman and entrepreneur.
Store: Freedom, Lexington, Ill.
Greeting: None.
Gasoline price: $3.399
Food eaten: None. There wasn't any offered to speak of.
Comments: A store called "Freedom" … right next to old Route 66 … featuring "Old Glory" energy drinks (which I tried and didn't like). I wanted to like this store, but I didn't. This is probably what too many consumers think of when they hear the term "convenience store": spotty stocking, too much warm beer filling the floor, empty corners, no soap in the restroom and the clerk chatting too long with a customer/friend, leaving others to wait.
Store: Greater Chicago I-55 Truck Stop, Bolingbrook, Ill.
Greeting: None.
Gasoline price: $3.739
Food eaten: None.
Comments: This is a busy site that has seen better days. Like many truckstops, this store has a little bit of everything, but here it's all over the place, and the handwritten, taped-up paper signage is haphazard at best. On the foodservice side, the diner atmosphere of the restaurant looked pleasant enough.
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