CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- Erich E. Wendl, a German native who launched the South Texas convenience store chain Maverick Markets in the 1960s, died this week, at age 80, reported the Corpus Christi Caller Times.
In July 1961, after success as a top car salesman in Harlingen, Texas, for Lewis Boggus Motor Co., Erich Wendl bought five Corpus Christi, Texas, c-stores, formerly the Cabell Minit Markets. They had been sold a month earlier to Hygeia Dairy Co., of Harlingen, which did not want to compete with their customers by selling other food products.
By 1969, Wendl's Maverick Markets Inc. chain had grown to 35 stores. In 1995, he sold 102 South Texas stores to Coastal Market Inc., a subsidiary of Houston-based Coastal Corp.
Wendl served as president of Texas Retail Grocers Association and was a founder and one of the six original board members of the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), said the report.
Wendl was one of the 14 retailers who founded NACS, during a three-day meeting in Kansas City in August 1961, NACS said in its obituary.
Harley Riedel, president of Tampa, Fla.-based Pic Quick, and who later became 1964 NACS president, contacted Wendl and said, "We're about to form, or we're talking about forming a trade association, a convenience store group. And maybe you should come and hear what we're trying to do and be part of it," Wendl told NACS in 2001.
Wendl served as NACS president in 1979, the group said.
Wendl is survived by his wife, Elvira; two children, Barbara Pender and Carl Wendl, and four grandchildren.
CSP Daily News sends condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.
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