"It's not in the best interests of our business when it costs $100 to fill up the tank. That's one of the reasons I got out of gas," Hawatmeh, a native of Jordan who has three other stores, told CSP Daily News. "You think anyone who spends $100 on fuel is [image-nocss] going to want to spend $1 in the store?"
Hawatmeh, who became a Shell dealer at age 16 and is now in his early 40s, has made a career out of creating new concepts and nurturing them to success. At the new store, upscale tequilas and other high-end liquors line the back bar, while mixers, vodkas and midpriced liquors fill shelves leading to the store's 19 cooler doors, six of which house craft, premium and below-premium beers. The store also has a beer vault stocked with multipacks of all kinds of domestics and imports.
In addition to copious amounts of alcohol, tobacco and snacks, the 4,700-square-foot store has an obvious foodservice presence with a proprietary Coast to Coast Deli and a Hot Stuff Pizza franchise. The kitchen takes up approximately one-third of the building, which was converted from a Gold's Gym.
Hawatmeh has begun the process of licensing the Coast to Coast concept to independent operators from different retail segments: convenience stores, liquor stores, cafeterias, etc. He plans to craft each concept based on the licensee's format and store size, but all would wear the Coast to Coast trade dress.
"Eventually this will be a chain," he promises, starting with St. Louis. "But store sets are easy, and I can fly anywhere."
As for the gas business, he admits the bruising backlash from customers in light of record-high per-gallon prices from last summer, not to mention draconian government regulations, left him "mentally exhausted." His still has two gas sites in the St. Louis market, as well as the store in Tampa he now leases to another operator, but he doesn't intend to add gasoline to any new investments in the near term.
"Maybe in five years things will change and everything will be all right with the world," he says. "But between now and then, you've got to get out."
To read more about how the collapse of the credit market is affecting retailers and petroleum marketers, watch for the December issue of CSP magazine.
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