SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Rapid Robert's Inc., a southern Missouri-based convenience store chain with 23 locations, is preparing to break ground on its 24th store, a seventh Springfield, Mo., location.
Since opening the first Rapid Robert's convenience store in Crane, Mo., 27 years ago, owners Rob and Sherry Wilson have managed to maintain a feeling of family ownership within their business, said The Springfield Business Journal. Last summer, each of the Wilsons' four children was working for the company. Son Todd Wilson is the full-time director of marketing, while school-age [image-nocss] children Amy, Travis and Taylor worked during their breaks doing bookkeeping, maintenance and general cleaning.
Rob Wilson's roots in the gasoline business go back three generations starting in 1928 with his grandfather, R.V. "Stormy" Wilson, operating "Wilson's Conoco" in the Missouri Arkansas border town of Blue Eye, Mo. In 1962 Rob's father, Bob "Blackie" Wilson purchased Stone County Oil Co., a gasoline distributorship located in Crane and distributed gasoline and bulk oil to stations and commercial accounts.
The Wilsons employ 145 across its soon-to-be two-dozen ConocoPhillips-branded southwest Missouri and Arkansas gas stations and convenience stores with 2009 sales of $79.5 million. The stores span the Ozarks, run south to Eureka Springs, Ark., and north to Osage Beach, Mo.
While gasoline is the common product at all Rapid Robert's locations, it is not what brings in the most profit, said the report. "You'd think if you were selling something for $2.69 a gallon, you should be making money on it. I term it a necessary evil," president and CEO Rob Wilson told the newspaper concerning his fuel sales.
He added that because so many businesses are involved in gasoline distribution, shipping and sales, it is the least profitable product.
The top-selling in-store products vary by location, Rob Wilson said. Stores near elementary schools are likely to sell more candy and soda, while stores near college campuses sell more energy drinks and beer.
With so many product options to fill up a convenience store, vice president Sherry Wilson said that it is challenging to pick the winnersoutside of cooler items such as water, soda and energy drinks. "It's a tough choice for us to decide what gets to come into the store, but what gets to stay is based on sales alone," she told the paper. "We call it basically having to pay for its space."
As with most businesses, Rapid Robert's has not been recession-proof, the report said. Last year's revenues were within a few million dollars of 2005 levels; however, officials project 2010 revenues of $80 million to $100 million, depending on fuel prices.
The technology used in the stores is the biggest operational change the Wilsons have seen, according to the report. Rob Wilson said he recalls running the first store's single cash register that had only three sales categories: gasoline, food and other. Now, he said, instead of registers, the stores use terminals with seven categories broken into 30 departments.
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