Building and then opening a new travel center means locating and hiring a significant number of part-time and full-time workers—more than the typical 4,000-square-foot convenience store requires.
James “Jim” Riewe, president of Fat Dogs Travel Center, North Platte, Nebraska, said getting the crucial hiring piece right is always essential, but there’s greater urgency when the effort involves an 18,000-square-foot travel center, where staff coordination and hands-on efficiency is necessary.
“You can offer a shiny new travel center with bells and whistles but still come up short in the eyes of clientele if employees fail to thrive in their roles—from customer relations to operations,” Riewe said.
Fat Dogs, with seven existing travel centers located throughout Nebraska, is christening threenew larger-size facilities in the Cornhusker State during the second half of 2024—to the tune of 35 to 40 workers per store.
Fortunately, the chain’s middle and upper management team has a host of strategies to get the job done. One component is a proprietary “Culture Index,” which conducts a deep dive around job applicants so that it hires not only workers compatible with the chain but balances the skillsets of workers it onboards.
“At these new travel centers, we certainly need bigger teams,” Riewe said. “Some should be visionaries, some acute attention to detail, while others need to be cheerleaders. The thing is, you don’t want to hire more cheerleaders, or nothing gets done.”
Too many visionaries, on the other hand, runs the risk that daily operational tasks won’t be executed to the letter. “Our Culture Index allows us to hire a well-rounded mix of people, and that’s vital with larger units that require more staff. The CI isn’t perfect, but it serves us well, helping slow down turnover and creating a great retail environment long-term,” said Riewe, who honed his retail management skills with both Shopko and Walmart.
To carry the concept one step further, when a chain performs a sweeping hiring campaign as it opens stores, customer first impressions are vital. The heavy lifting to debut a cutting-edge c-store is undermined if customer relations fall short, said Riewe. “Our goal is to be your ‘favorite place,’ and a top-rate customer experience decides if you're coming back.”
‘Live’ From Nebraska
Fat Dogs, a Wilkinson Development Co. entity owned by real estate entrepreneur Mark Wilkinson, is preparing to hit the switch on Fat Dogs travel centers in Grand Island, North Platte and Lincoln, all ranging in size from 14,000- to 18,000-square-foot stores.
“Currently, the Grand Island and Lincoln properties house smaller, existing Fat Dogs stores—about 2,000-3,000 square feet,” said Riewe, who has been with Wilkinson Development for almost nine years. “We’ll close those and immediately flip the switch to activate the new locations. The transition will effectively triple our per-store foot traffic.”
The Lincoln Travel Center is “clicking right ahead of schedule and should open at the end of July,” Riewe said. “There’s a lot of buzz in these communities. The Lincoln store will have 10 MPDs, high-flow diesel pumps and quick-serve branded foodservice. We’re remodeling the existing smaller stores in Lincoln and Grand Island and hope to lease them out to businesses that complement food and fuel.”
In Lincoln, the Fat Dogs facility is designed with a “cash-rap checkout,” which is a design that the chain hasn’t yet executed. “It’s a 20-foot oval checkout area,” he said. “We have two sides of the building: one side serves the diesel customers, who enter from that side, while the gasoline customer enters at the other side. The checkout center helps enhance flow and best accommodate both types of clientele.”
The Lincoln store will be equipped with a glass-case merchandiser rimming the entire lower half of the cash rap where locked-up products, such as CBD and tobacco accessories, will be on display. Lincoln will also feature a “Husker” wall mural, an ode to the state’s Cornhusker roots.
“At all of our locations, we work with a professional graffiti artist to create terrific murals,” Riewe said. “To carry this out, we work with each local chamber on selecting the graphics for the murals that best represent the community, such as local iconic destinations, parks, museums, sports teams.”
The Grand Island Travel Center plans to open around Labor Day, Riewe said, as the team irons out infrastructure efforts and final occupancy permits. “We were tasked with creating a highway ‘merge lane’ to make it as safe as possible for motorists,” he said.
The North Platte project will open later this year and has an overall footprint to house a second retail business—one that will complement the travel center’s product mixes. “In North Platte, we’ll ultimately have one travel center on the east exit at I-80 and one on the west exit.” He noted.
One overarching trend is that no two Fat Dogs Travel Center are the same, all offering customized, nuanced details. All Fat Dogs stores are no more than seven-years-old.
Speaking about what sets the largest store, Grand Island, apart, Riewe said it serves as “our Taj Mahal—it has a second floor that will best cater to professional drivers, equipped with showers, workout room and services such as massages and haircuts. It also has an elevator.”
As Riewe succinctly summed up the Fat Dogs vision in moving forward, he said: “we’re a small company that’s pulling off a big deal.”
Fat Dogs Travel Center Facts
- Spot-on site selection: Speaking about the methodology underpinning site selection of all its retail properties, Riewe said that owner Mark Wilkinson, who had made a successful career as a real estate developer and strategist with an emphasis on hotel/hospitality development, “runs the numbers on local population to see what’s possible and also trends about traffic trends on Interstate 80, all to see where and when to build.”
- Tech upgrades: Fat Dogs’ loyalty/reward app is being taken to the next level by offering push notification to alert customers to ongoing deals across all dayparts.
- Food kiosks: Fat Dogs, in conjunction with partner OLM Food Solutions, is working on food-ordering kiosks, where customers place orders via in-store kiosk, receive a ticket, and skip the line. “This will allow drivers to go take a shower or work out, come back and food is ready. The kiosks are mobile and can be moved around stores. But we’re looking forward to taking kiosks out to local events, where people can order and have Door Dash deliver where they are,” said Riewe. Kiosks will go live on or around Labor Day.
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