BELTON, S.C. -- The Hickory Point gas station chain includes 30 stores, but only over the past three years have customers been able to notice, according to The Independent Mail. Hickory Point owner Patrick O'Dell started transferring the red and yellow store design from new stores in the Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., market to Anderson County late last year.
Although he still operates a few stations under the BP and Exxon flags, the renovations are doing more than just branding, said the report. With the new branding, Hickory Point can buy gasoline at [image-nocss] bulk rates from several different sources, O'Dell told the newspaper. The chain also is able to bundle its credit card transactions and pay lower credit card fees. We are fortunate to have the ability to do that, and it pays off for our customers, he said.
Hickory Point tries to always be competitive, even if it's not always the cheapest, O'Dell said. And the company is already seeing sales benefit from the changes.
The Hickory Point chain is growing. It recently opening a Spartanburg station and plans to build another one in the Wren area, the report said.
O'Dell purchased a small Gulf wholesale distributor in March 1984 to start O'Dell Oil Co. Inc. The Hickory Point stations followed a year later.
Janet Williamson, the company's CFO, said O'Dell has created a store environment encourages employees to stay long term, something atypical of the convenience store industry. It's the people, she told the paper. I really think that's our strength.
Ann Odom is just one example. She started working at Hickory Point part-time while carrying another job. She eventually started to work full-time at the station. She was promoted to assistant manager then manager and is now the Anderson district manager. I considered it fun, she said about her work at the station. Regulars get to know the cashiers so well that they ask about each others' families, and Odom estimated that 65% of the stations' customer are regulars.
If they weren't getting friendly customer service, they wouldn't be coming like that, she said.
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