By Sarah Hamaker
Alex Ringle picked a busy road for EddieWorld, which he said is the largest gas station in California. “It’s along Highway 15 near Yermo, California, nearly dead halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas,” he said. “No one gave us any confidence we’d make it, but obviously it’s worked out.”
EddieWorld’s reputation as the place to stop on the way to Vegas or Los Angeles continues to grow. “It’s very strategically placed to be a natural stopping point whether you’re coming or going,” he said.
GROWING THE WORLD
The idea for EddieWorld grew out of the Death Valley Nut and Candy Company, which Ringle’s father opened in 2001 in Beatty, Nevada along Highway 95, about five miles from Death Valley. “I managed it for two years, learning all about the business,” Ringle said. “I really loved the concept and how he made it so unique for a gas station. I figured if his concept did so well along a less-traveled highway, then we stood to do even better along a much busier interstate.”
From the beginning, Ringle had his eye on the future. “I knew in my lifetime, the internal combustion engine vehicle would be overtaken by the electric vehicle, so we wanted to make it convenient to stop and charge your EV,” he said. “The normal gas station doesn’t work for the EV charging crowd—you need a lot more things and amenities to appeal to EV drivers because charging takes longer than filling a gas tank.”
To that end, he developed a facility with snacks, coffee, restaurant-quality food and plenty of private-label products to entice customers to stay for a few minutes or half an hour. “This works for passenger cars and EVs—we wanted to straddle both worlds with plenty of reasons to stop,” Ringle said. He even installed solar panels over the entire fueling station canopy to reduce the store’s carbon footprint.
Inside the store, three EddieWorld-branded restaurant concepts tempt customers to fill up their bellies. One restaurant offers sandwiches on fresh-baked bread as well as salads; another restaurant has grilled food (e.g., burgers, hot dogs, hand-battered chicken tenders), french fries and tacos. The third serves custom pizzas in an oven which bakes the pies in 90 seconds. “We also make our own ice cream on-site and our own gourmet popcorn,” he said. “We wanted everything to be as fresh as possible and all is branded EddieWorld.”
The private label extends to the store’s wide selection of snacks and treats. “The packaged goods are our bread and butter—we bag everything on-site in one-pound bags, and it’s a huge portion of our retail operation,” Ringle said. Candy, nuts, chocolate, dried fruit and sugar-free candy are popular with customers. For the kids, EddieWorld has a wide selection of plush animals as well as travel games, activity books and art kits.
In addition to the private-label goods, the store stocks 30 different kinds of Jedidiah’s Jerky. “There’s a huge demand for our jerky because it’s a popular travel snack,” he said. There’s even an extensive hot sauce collection, a Mexican candy section and items for dogs. “We’re trying to cover all the bases now,” he said.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
For Ringle, the best part of operating EddieWorld is seeing the expression on a customer’s face. “You can always tell when someone walks in for the first time—the look on their faces as they see how different this is from your traditional gas station is amazing,” he said. “It’s almost as if they don’t know where to look because it’s so bright and colorful. We have a lot going on here.”
Part of EddieWorld’s charm is its employees. “I lean on senior staff members to train the new employees—it’s a huge operation and the only way to understand it is time,” he said. “It’s important that our new workers are trained by people who’ve been around the longest because they get it, and they understand the unique things about our operation,” Ringle said. “It takes time to learn and adapt and execute that model because we’re a total departure from the traditional.”
Ultimately, EddieWorld was created outside of the box. “We figured out something no one was doing and decided to provide that experience,” Ringle said. “People like these experiences, and, in the long run, you’ll go far if you can deliver that to your customers.”
This article first appeared in the June issue of NACS Magazine.
Sarah Hamaker is a freelance writer, NACS Magazine contributor, and romantic suspense author based in Fairfax, Virginia. Visit her online at sarahhamakerfiction.com.