TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- A Tuscaloosa, Ala., landmark business is changing hands, reported The Tuscaloosa News. Six Buddy's Food Marts will be operated by Brayco Inc., a company owned by James Smith and Brian Harvell, two longtime Buddy's employees.
The convenience store chain will continue to operate as it has in the past, according to the report. "If there could be a seamless changeover, this is as seamless as it could be," Tripp Powell, president of Kuykendall & Powell Oil Co., told the newspaper.
Brayco will continue to operate under the Buddy's Food Mart name and will continue [image-nocss] to sell Parade-brand gasoline. Kuykendall & Powell Oil, which has owned and operated the chain, will continue to own the store buildings. It will lease them to Brayco and will supply the stores with gasoline.
The Buddy's Food Mart chain at one time included 12 stores, said the report, and Kuykendall & Powell still owns all 12 buildings. Six of those stores, however, no longer operate under the Buddy's name.
Kuykendall & Powell Oil was a Sinclair Oil distributor until that company withdrew from the Southeast.
Kuykendall & Powell Oil CEO Buddy Powell, Tripp's father, founded the first Buddy's Food Mart on Skyland Boulevard in 1978 to give the oil-jobbing business another retail outlet. The chain prospered and soon became a more recognizable name than the gasoline distributorship that spawned it.
"Dad just slowly began accruing stores," Tripp Powell told the paper. "It's because Dad was born and raised in Tuscaloosa. Parade is a Tuscaloosa brand. His personal stamp is on every aspect of the business. It's that way because he couldn't help but do it that way."
Buddy Powell ran the stores in a hands-on manner. "When you go into the stores, you were just as likely to see dad or me in the store as our employees," Tripp Powell said.
The stores were designed to draw their business from nearby neighborhoods rather than highway traffic, he said, and beer and cigarette advertising was not allowed inside so that parents would feel comfortable bringing their children in.
Tripp Powell said the company leased out the stores so his father could slow down and take it a little easier. "Dad's been doing it for 30 years and kind of got tired of it," he told the paper.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.