Southwest Georgia Oil Co. Inc.

Southwest Georgia Oil is a family-owned business that opened its first service station in 1961 and began adding convenience stores in 1970, operating under a variety of formats in Georgia, Florida and Alabama. Today all stores are branded SunStop Market, a convenience/grocery store with fuel and deli; SunStop Urban Market, a nonfuel site on the campus of Florida State University; or a new SunStop prototype store featuring Planet Smoothie and one of the first Moe’s drive-thru locations.

In 2021, the company opened a new store in Thomasville, Ga., and completed a raze and rebuild in Tallahassee, Fla. It is anticipating three to five new store openings in 2022, in addition to continued remodels of existing stores.

Most of the stores are in rural locations and are known as destination stops for local customers.

All stores feature limited-service or self-serve foodservice, many under the Eat’s Southern Cookin’ brand, including chicken and sandwiches prepared on-site. “The Maverick” sandwich features barbecue, macaroni and cheese, onion rings and pickles.

The retailer’s Inland SunnySaver Preferred Payment Card and SunStop mobile app offer customers instant price savings on fuel. Many locations offer diesel for automobiles, and some offer diesel for semitrailers.

In addition to the c-store locations, Southwest Georgia Oil also delivers fuel to stations in Georgia and Florida through its wholesale petroleum division, Total Petroleum LLC. It also has a propane division and its own transport division.

For benchmarking purposes, store counts are as of Jan. 1, 2022.