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Diving certificate:
- Major Oil, operator of the Joltz C-Stores, has opened its first two locations, according to a company statement.
- The stores are located in St. Elizabeth and Freeburg, Missouri. Major Oil, which is based in Birmingham, Alabama, plans to eventually reach 500 locations in multiple markets, from Missouri down to Texas and eastward to the East Coast from North Carolina to Florida, CEO Major Itule said in an interview with C-Store Dive.
- While the first two locations will be traditional c-stores, most of the Joltz locations will be based on Major Oil’s “hybrid energy station” model, which features portable above-ground storage tanks and Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” frictionless in-store checkout technology.
Diving insight:
Prior to opening the Major Oil and Joltz c-stores, Itule spent several years working at various point-of-sale companies in the c-store industry. These two Joltz locations in Missouri – the first c-stores Itule has operated – serve as a launching pad for Major Oil to learn the ins and outs of daily c-store operations before the company continues its journey into the world of hybrid energy.
“This gives us the opportunity to learn how to operate the traditional c-store over the next few months and then take that model and integrate it into the Amazon Just Walk Out stores,” Itule said.
Itule said Major Oil’s first hybrid energy stations are scheduled to open sometime between the end of the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. Using this model, Major Oil plans to take over older stations, remove their underground storage tanks and canopies, and install an above-ground fuel management system.
Each location has two above-ground tanks of 12,000 gallons eachwhich can be modified to dispense both biodiesel and regular fuels. The Just Walk Out-equipped Joltz convenience stores – each expected to be about 90 square metres in size – will be located between the two tanks.
Major Oil is developing this C-store model in partnership with American Development Partners, a full-service development firm and design-focused private equity firm based in Nashville, Tennessee.
