By Amanda Baltazar

A disruptor has arrived in the convenience retail industry.

Located in the Midwest, The Gas Spot and The Goods Spot (its two convenience-only locations) are operated by the women-led company InConvenience Inc, which currently has 20 locations total in Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas, with more on the horizon. Its brand is known playfully as The G-Spot.

The goal of the company, said CEO Tiffany Fraley, is to become the hub of the small communities most of its stores are located in.

The stores sponsor local events, such as car shows or parades, host Toys for Tots campaigns and donate to the local community. In the fall, the stores donated back-to-school backpacks filled with supplies for students.

“It’s about showing people we want to be there. It’s about being part of the community, and giving communities a constant that maybe wasn’t there before with the previous operators [of the c-stores InConvenience acquired]. We’re doing whatever we can to show we support them,” said Fraley.

Almost all Gas Spot convenience stores feature a small seating area inside where locals can gather and create routines. “We want to make it a little more convenient for the more rural locations,” said brand manager Alicia LaFollette. “It’s not always fun to eat in your car. Some people need an alternative place. We had a goal of making [our stores] a place you want to spend some time in.”

Building The Gas Spot Brand

The company focuses on having a recognizable and cohesive brand across its locations, using a blue and mustard gold color palette and “G” words as often as possible—such as The Gathering Spot, The Gulp Spot, The Grocery Spot and The Gear Spot to designate areas of the store.

“We need to stop taking ourselves so seriously and then it becomes fun. As our branding strategy grows and we put more into it, we have more opportunity and there’s nothing out there like this,” said Fraley.

To learn more about The Gas Spot’s branding strategy, check out “Making a Brand Stand Out From the Competition” in the September 2025 issue of NACS Magazine.

Each store the company acquires is remodeled and updated with its branding, though InConvenience is reusing and repurposing as much of the previous building as it can for environmental and financial reasons. It’s important to have a uniform look in all stores, Fraley said.

She also wanted each Gas Spot store to have the same feel for customers. Employees are trained not only to welcome everyone, but also to say goodbye to all customers as they leave. “That goodbye is just as important as that hello,” Fraley said. “We have two touchpoints and we need to be getting at least one of those. The focus on greetings is also to get employee buy-in to the brand and to let them know we’re really trying to build something.”

A Foodservice Program That’s Easy to Execute

Prepared foods are a big focus for the chain. Each kitchen requires a high-speed convection oven, a refrigerated pizza prep station, a cut table and a freezer and refrigerator.

InConvenience is working closely with Performance Food Services (PFS), which helped build its menus, mostly from frozen fully- or partially-cooked foods such as pre-breaded chicken and pre-formed pizza dough that just needs toppings.

“We realized it is easier than we thought,” said LaFollette. “Bringing foodservice back to these rural communities has been so beneficial. There’s almost no other game in town.” The pizza is PFS’s Wingman Pizza brand.

Better Bathrooms Win With Customers

In its research, InConvenience found that 52% of its customers are female, so offering clean, safe bathrooms is essential for serving that customer base. LaFollette explained that when the bathrooms look nice, the employees “are more inclined to take care of that space.”

One way it’s keeping its restrooms clean is by covering the walls with a product called FRP—it looks like subway tile and has a dimensional quality to it with grey grout lines, but the material is simply adhered onto the wall.

“It goes floor to ceiling and it gives the look of a very clean space,” LaFollette said. “It’s very easy to clean and is Sharpie-proof.” InConvenience is also replacing fixtures to improve the restrooms’ look.

Getting the Word Out

To let people know about new Gas Spot locations, InConvenience uses a mixture of old and new types of marketing, from window graphics, flags and grand opening celebrations to social media marketing where it features special deals.

Currently, there are three Gas Spot Facebook pages—one each for the Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas stores—to ensure posts are relevant to the people in each state.

InConvenience also likes its employees to be brand ambassadors “and our local megaphone,” LaFollette said. Often it’s the managers or district managers who post something on their personal Facebook page, which pushes it out to their friends and family, she explained. “They’re the ones getting our network bigger.”

Next up for The Gas Spot is launching its own loyalty program and an app. “What does the loyalty program look like and how do we use loyalty to keep our customers coming back, and how do we attract new customers?” said Fraley.

“And while we cater to [existing] customers, we need to think of who’s coming in behind that and what are their habits. We have to look at how we grow our brand beyond the walls that contain our stores,” she said.