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 postTexas-born Buc-ee's is changing the way people think about gas stations and convenience stores. This chain is known for its huge stores along highways, some with over 100 fuel pumps. With its funny billboard ads, award-winning clean bathrooms, and branded items Buc-ee’s is hard to miss. The company wants people to actually plan to stop at Buc-ee's during road trips, not just go there as a last resort. And it's working - the chain has a huge fan base, with Facebook groups dedicated to Buc-ee's having hundreds of thousands of members.
Read the postSheetz Inc., the Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain, is making big moves in the Motor City. The company announced plans to open four more locations across metro Detroit, weeks before opening its first Michigan location. The first Michigan Sheetz will open its doors in late summer at 33380 Wick Road in Romulus. More locations are planned for Taylor, Warren, and Macomb Township, each employing around 30 people, mostly full-time.
Read the postLove's Travel Stops is rolling out a new system that turns work into a game for its restaurant employees. Picture this: Three big screens in each restaurant, tracking how fast workers greet customers, take orders, and hand out food. It's not just for show - early results say it's making service 11 seconds faster on average. "These monitors track key performance metrics in real-time, such as greet times, order processing times and the time it takes for food handoff," Love's explains. The system creates a more interactive environment, fostering friendly competition between stores.
Read the post
