5 South State Street Plaza, Atkinson IL 61235
“Vantastic Loves Travel Center! This is a smaller property with room for any size rig or RV. The lots were clean, well maintained, well lit and fairly level. The store and bathrooms were clean and well maintained. There's also a Subway and godfathers pizza along with the normal Loves fast food and snack options. Separate big rig and auto fuel islands, propane and RV dump are available. There's a fenced dog run for your pups. I had full bars of Verizon 4G LTE Roaming, no wifi and 20 OTA television channels from my perimeter location. As always, I left my area cleaner than when I arrived and made an in store purchase to thank Love's for allowing me to overnight.”
5 South State Street Plaza, Atkinson IL 61235
“I’ve been stopping at Love’s four times a week for just over a year, and the experience hasn’t been the best. I understand it’s early in the morning, but it can be difficult to get anyone’s attention when I’m ready to check out. The staff makes me feel like I’m a huge inconvenience. Tuesday morning was completely different. I was warmly greeted by a Miss Miranda, who was busy cleaning and taking care of the store but still took the time to acknowledge me. She even joked about my small coffee mug and how I needed more coffee. She was ready to check me out, my coffee was hot and fresh, and the store was the cleanest I’ve ever seen it. I really enjoyed our conversation and thanked her for the work she was doing. I actually look forward to seeing her on my route. I hope she knows what a difference she made to my day. Please continue to make staff and store improvements.”
The Iowa retailer, the third-largest convenience store operator in the country, built its new three-year plan around three priorities: store growth, food and beverage expansion, and kitchen technology upgrades. The company plans to add 120 stores during the current fiscal year. Its previous plan, launched in 2023, delivered more than 500 new stores and earned the company a spot in the S&P 500.
Read the postLove's Travel Stops is starting 2025 with ambitious growth plans, adding 20 new stores and updating 50 current locations across the country. The truck stop company will upgrade its stores through its Strategic Remodel Initiative, which started in 2022. This includes the modernization of its recently acquired turnpike location in Stroud, Oklahoma. By 2035, over half of Love's 655 stores will be either new or updated.
Read the postFood service giant Sodexo plans to open nearly 100 "Food Hive" locations on campuses nationwide by 2026. The company has already started the process, aiming to launch about 30 new college convenience stores during the current 2024-25 academic year.
Read the post7-Eleven is going big on food and "frictionless shopping." The convenience store giant plans to open 500 new "food-forward" locations across the U.S. from 2025 to 2027. The expansion builds on 7-Eleven's "Evolution" store concept, first launched in Dallas in 2019. These larger-format stores feature in-store restaurants, premium products like craft beer and cigars, and an emphasis on fresh, grab-and-go meals.
Read the postAmazon has quietly opened a new type of grocery store in downtown Chicago. Called Amazon Grocery, the 3,800-square-foot store is a testing ground for Amazon's latest experiment in brick-and-mortar retail. The first Amazon Grocery location shares a building with a Whole Foods Market, which Amazon purchased in 2017.
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