What role in the community do you think convenience stores should play?

Fuel retail centers like RaceTrac are declared a critical infrastructure workforce by the Department of Homeland Security, and RaceTrac takes that role seriously. We are essential to the communities that we serve, providing the resources to keep guests fueled and serving as a neighborhood food establishment. We work diligently to ensure our store locations remain a safe and reliable place for our guests to get “whatever gets you going.”

What does NACS political engagement mean to you, and what benefits have you experienced from being politically engaged?

NACS political engagement is about building relationships with policymakers across our footprint, as well as other leaders across our industry. Hand in hand with relationship building, political engagement is about educating lawmakers about the policy issues that are important to our industry to ensure that policy is crafted thoughtfully. My political engagement with NACS keeps me up to date on issues affecting RaceTrac and the industry at large and has provided me and my team with opportunities to advocate effectively on behalf of our company and industry.

What federal legislative or regulatory issues keep you up at night?

I wish I could say there was only one issue that kept me up at night—alas, there are several. But I will limit myself to two. First, climate policy is a recurring issue of concern for me and (I would imagine) the rest of the industry. Our industry has been successful over time because we are nimble and fuel agnostic. We sell legal products to consumers that want them. While the “refueling of the future” may be vastly different from what it is today, that isn’t necessarily something to be afraid of. What concerns me are policy changes being pushed in the climate, energy and environment space that will prevent our industry from competing on a level playing field for the refueling business of the future. The second broad issue area that keeps me up at night is labor policy. The c-store industry is a very important employer across the nation. At RaceTrac, we are always looking for great new talent and striving to keep and nurture that talent. It often seems, however, that labor policy being pushed in the legislative and regulatory space has the reverse effect of what policymakers intend: It ends up limiting or stifling employment opportunities, being detrimental to the workers it seeks to support.

What c-store product could you not live without?

RaceTrac’s crazy good coffee