Valor Oil is expanding its Hop Shops convenience-store brand in Rockport, Indiana. This will be Hop Shops’ first location in the Hoosier State.
Valor Oil, Owensboro, Kentucky, has owned and leased the Rockport Truck Plaza at 981 N State Route 161 for many years, but officially took ownership of the property on Sept. 10.
“This marks an exciting milestone for the company, which already operates two Hop Shops Truck Plazas in Owensboro, 10 Hop Shops Convenience Stores in northern Kentucky and two Hop Shops Truck Plazas in Ohio,” the company said. Hop Shops now operates 15 convenience stores.
One of the planned additions for the Rockport location will be a Chester’s Chicken, the fresh fried chicken quick-service restaurant (QSR) concept with more than 1,300 active franchised and licensed locations across the United States. Chester’s Chicken will be available Sept. 19.
Other plans coming to the Rockport locations includes the addition of the retailer's famed bathrooms.
“Our focus will be on enhancing the customer experience by bringing our world famous disco bathrooms and expanding our food offerings with Chester's Chicken,”Damon Bail, vice president of retail operations with Valor Oil, told CSP. “This is the next step in our growth, and we’re excited to welcome the community to experience what Hop Shops has to offer.”
Hop Shops now has six disco-themed bathroom locations in Kentucky and Ohio and Bail said the the company is looking to add more disco bathrooms to existing locations. He also said customers visiting the existing disco-themed bathroom locations will soon be able to hear a different tune.
“One thing we are bringing to the original six disco bathrooms is that sometime in the winter or by the New Year, they will each get a new song that will be played in their bathroom. So for 2025 you're going to be able to go and experience the site, push the button and get the next experience that will be completely new to you when you visit,” Bail said.
Last week Hop Shops held a grand reopening for one of its Kentucky, stores. Located at 390 Violet Road in Crittenden, Kentucky, Hop Shops said the store has undergone a “series of enhancements.”
Along with operating the Hop Shops, Valor Oil LLC is a distributor of petroleum products in Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, North Carolina and South Carolina.
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