Why do some convenience-store hires depart after a month while some never leave?
CSP spoke with four employees who fall into the latter category: Those who turned an hourly position into a career.
Here is the second story in the series, featuring Kelly Stokes (pictured below) of Southwest Georgia Oil Co.
Click here for more on the state of labor and hiring at convenience stores today.
Stokes, district manager at SunStop c-stores, operated by Southwest Georgia Oil, Bainbridge, Georgia, started working in convenience stores at age 19.
She worked in the c-store business for 15 years, then moved into a different line of work when her store closed. Stokes later worked as a part-time cashier at a c-store that was acquired by SunStop, now an 80-store chain. After about six months, she moved up to assistant manager and, a year later, manager, a role she held for 11 years. Stokes has been a district manager for the last three years.
- Southwest Georgia Oil Co. Inc./SunStop is No. 86 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
In her early 20s, she realized she was good at her job and first considered making a career in the c-store business. Stokes said opportunity for advancement is one of the main reasons she has stayed.
She also said there’s a “big family atmosphere, and that kind of thing makes the work enjoyable. Everybody knows everybody in the company, even our President [Glennie Bench]. She’s very personable.”
Stokes has held many positions, so one of her biggest strengths is relating to coworkers.
Read more: Breaking the Stigma: Kwik Trip’s Jake Vogel Shares Career Path Story
“[I know] what it feels like to be a store manager and how it feels to have just lost two employees in one day, or to be the cashier who’s tired and struggling and has a kid at home,” she said.
The company offers a variety of training opportunities, including leadership development, and a few months ago, Stokes partook in a conference in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Based on what she learned, she’ll be doing a presentation on employee motivation and retention in October at the NACS Show in Las Vegas.
Throughout the summer, she’s been surveying employees to gauge their motivation and loyalty. Based on the results, SunStop will implement an employee rewards program, and at the end of three months, she’ll conduct another survey to gauge results.
To inspire others, Stokes makes it a point to tell her story to as many coworkers as possible, showing that they also can excel in a company.
“I started this whole journey young, and I did rise up through the ranks,” she said. “I know I have a lot of managers who say I inspire them to do better and want to move up. I help them.”
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