AAA’s annual Memorial Day travel forecast serves as an indicator of how many travelers will hit the road from now until Labor Day. Several years ago, we learned that this forecast has yet to transpire into a downer summer. Memorial Day weekend getaways are usually a precursor to longer vacations later in the summer, and this year AAA predicted a record 45.1 million travelers from May 22-26.
We’ve talked about summer travel opportunities in convenience stores extensively on our Convenience Matters podcast, in NACS Magazine and in NACS Daily—and for good reason. Sales go up, fuel volumes pick up and more customers visit c-stores.
Leading up to the summer months we also talk extensively about road trips. Getting out and seeing the world, having fun, eating lots of snacks and creating memories, whether good or not so good.
In fact, one of the worst road trips ever is why we have interstate roads to travel.
It all started over 100 years ago in 1919, just after World War I wrapped up.
The U.S. War Department decided to launch a massive 3,200-mile road trip from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco to see how the U.S. auto industry and the roads were holding up. A young Army lieutenant named Dwight Eisenhower thought it sounded like a "genuine adventure" and jumped on board. It turned out to be a brutal 62-day trek filled with broken-down vehicles, dead-end roads, mud, quicksand, and just overall misery.
But hey, those memories!
Eisenhower never forgot that road trip, and probably couldn’t if he tried. When he became president nearly 40 years later, he made a key move by signing the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which created continued funding for construction of the U.S. interstate system. Eisenhower made future road trips way more enjoyable, and forever changed our industry.
The impact of the Federal-Aid Highway Act was significant. Better roads led to the expansion of suburbs. Convenience stores were still a bit of a novelty, with only a few hundred scattered in warm weather locations, but as more people moved to the suburbs, c-stores became lifesavers for 9-to-5 commuters. People could easily grab milk, bread, and eggs on their way home. Plus, convenience stores opened early and stayed open later—from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.—while most grocery stores shut down by 5 p.m.
So, if you want to help a customer who isn’t having the best road trip experience, you could share how the worst road trip ever is why our interstate highway system exists today.
Or it may be best to show the bleary-eyed traveler with both overly tired and hyperactive kids some empathy. We’ve all been there.