ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Love’s Travel Stops has opened new locations in four states, including Morris, Illinois; Lancaster, Ohio; Loudon, Tennessee; and Carthage, Texas. The stores add a combined 290 truck parking spaces and 335 jobs to the communities where they’re located.
“Opening four locations in one day is no small feat, but our team members are ready to provide customers with clean places and friendly faces in Morris, Lancaster, Loudon and Carthage,” said Shane Wharton, president of Love’s. “With plenty of amenities to choose from at each of our locations, professional drivers and four-wheel customers are sure to get what they need and be back on the road quickly.”
The locations are open 24/7 and offer many amenities, including Hardee's, Naf-Naf, Arby’s, Subway, Wendy’s, RV hookups, showers, laundry facilities, dog parks, CAT scale, Speedco, bean-to-cup gourmet coffee, Mobile to Go Zone with the latest GPS, headsets and smartphone accessories.
In honor of the grand openings, Love’s will donate $2,000 to the following nonprofits in each town:
- Carthage, Texas: Panola College.
- Loudon, Tennessee: Smoky Mountain Service Dogs.
- Lancaster, Ohio: The donation will be split between Meals on Wheels Fairfield County and Lancaster Fairfield County Charity Newsies.
- Morris, Illinois: The donation will be split between Morris Community High School and Morris City Hall.
Also,
TravelCenters of America has opened a
new location in central California. The store adds 78 truck parking spots to the Madera area along busy Highway 99 at exit 44. Amenities include five showers; six diesel bays with DEF; restaurants, including Cinnabon, Indian Curry NAAN Stop, Fatburger, Yogurtland and Pizza Hut Express; laundry facilities; driver lounge; CAT Scale; and a pet area.
Meanwhile, Kum & Go is closing four of its five walk-up urban concept stores located in Ames, Iowa, Denver and Omaha, Nebraska. The original store at Seventh and Locust streets in Des Moines, its headquarters, will remain open, reports the Des Moines Register.
The stores were meant to draw in urban customers, offering hot and premade food, healthy items and higher-end wine and liquor. Kum & Go spokesperson spokesperson Taylor Boland told the Register that the store concepts were a test for the company.
"We've learned a lot from operating these fuel-less concepts. However, they no longer fit into our long-term plans for expansion," Boland said. "We will focus on our traditional stores in the area that can accommodate all of our fresh food offerings, as well as a selection of fuels."
When the Des Moines location opened in June 2020, Ariel Rubin, Kum & Go spokesperson, said the company saw “cities urbanizing. We see more people moving to downtowns in our footprint. We wanted to find a way to bring people to our stores in the places where they work and live.”
However, many workers still work from home, with 6 in 10 U.S. office workers still working remotely, according to the Pew Research Center, as of February.
Many convenience store chains are looking to find ways to decrease its reliability on gasoline sales, as the adoption of electric vehicles increases. Casey’s opened its first gas pump-less store in April near Drake University and is working to provide “robust alternative fuel options is part of the company’s environmental stewardship efforts.”