Why do some convenience-store hires depart after a month while some never leave?
CSP spoke with four employees who fall into the latter category: Those who turned an hourly position into a career.
Here is the fourth story in the series, featuring Lara Martello of S&S Petroleum. Read the other profiles on leaders from SunStop, TravelCenters of America and Kwik Trip.
Click here for more on the state of labor and hiring at convenience stores today.
Martello has been with S&S Petroleum for 10 years, plus two years before that with Tesoro, the company that S&S, Mukilteo, Washington, acquired.
She was a nursing student and married with two kids, and she took a cashier position because it was nearby, and the store offered flexible hours.
Martello (pictured below) succeeded in her role as a cashier for a couple of years, a point at which those in that role are expected to advance to assistant manager. However, that required working nights and weekends, which she couldn’t do.
“They really wanted me to move into that position,” she says. However, the manager position had Monday through Friday responsibilities, but not weekends, “so they actually moved me up to the manager position and bypassed the system, which is a big deal. I was already doing a lot of the stuff anyway, so it was easy for me to position into the manager position.”
After a year and a half, Martello was promoted to assistant district manager, where she oversaw more stores. Eventually, she became a district manager, her current role.
“I wasn’t planning on a career [at S&S],” she says. “I was able to move up in my position, which helped me contribute to my family, so [nursing school] got put on hold, and then, as I was offered more advancement, [continuing my career] just seemed like a better idea.”
Martello looks up to the general manager of the company, Mary Munger, who was her boss until about a year ago.
- S&S Petroleum is No. 61 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
“At first, we did not meet eye to eye,” Martello says. “I learned how to take constructive criticism and feedback, but it taught me also how to pass it on to my team members. Another thing she taught me [is that] when working with your team members or other managers, offer them what they need to work on but also compliment them. A lot of times that’s hard; you’re just focused on what needs to be fixed.”
In addition to teaching Martello how to lead by example, as S&S’s footprint expanded, Munger helped Martello embrace change.
“She knew a lot about the company and their expectations, like policies and regulation,” she says.
Martello has also learned that promoting from within is a more secure and effective strategy when the opportunity presents itself.
“We have had employees that started as a cashier and then excelled to become a manager; they have better knowledge and know what’s expected of the stores,” she says.
S&S Petroleum has 110 stores. It does business as an ampm franchisee and operates unbranded stores and a Royal Mart in partnership with branded fuel marketers Mobil, Arco and Shell.
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