FORT WORTH, Texas — Yesway’s current focus on rural site selections goes all the way back to knowledge shared by the late Lonnie Allsup, founder of the Allsup’s convenience store chain, which Yesway acquired in 2019.

Allsup scouted new sites by flying his airplane over highways in Oklahoma, west Texas and his home state of New Mexico, looking for clusters of motor traffic surrounded by wide open spaces, according to Tom Brown, director of real estate acquisitions for Yesway

“Lonnie would put his store at the intersection of the Interstate and the state highway and buy all the open land surrounding the store for defensive purposes,” Brown said. “He was one of the first people in the convenience store business to build larger stores with food and grocery items. In recent years, it was easy for him to build a bigger store because he owned all the land around it.” Click to read more at www.csnews.com.