Josh Grant isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. “If there’s an issue in the restroom, I’m in there fixing it. If the trash needs to be taken out and the employee is helping customers, I’ll take it out,” said the owner of Pit Stop in Leadington, Missouri. “This sometimes surprises my employees, since they might think the owner of the company shouldn’t be hauling trash to the Dumpster, but I’m demonstrating the concept of teamwork and the importance of taking care of things when you can.”

Grant’s family ran both a convenience store and petroleum business, so he acquired extensive knowledge growing up in the industry. When it was time for him to branch out on his own, he bought the Leadington Pit Stop location. “I’d been a general manager for several years working for my family, and thought it was time to take my experience from working for someone else to working for myself,” he said.

Today, he wears many hats, which he loves. “Owning my own store allowed me to create a store that serves all of my interests,” Grant said. “I didn’t like the idea of working nine-to-five or doing the same thing over and over again. When you run a convenience store, there’s something new every day.”

The high-volume, 24/7 store delivers exactly what Grant wanted from a business. “I know all the ins and outs of my store because I’ve worked through all the aspects of it, from making pizzas to changing pump filters,” he said. “There are good days and bad days of course, but overall, it’s been very motivating to me.”

Same Yet Different

Pit Stop has many similarities to other convenience stores, but Grant also put his personal stamp on it. The store carries all merchandise categories, including a full grocery section, and has a kitchen for foodservice. “It’s hard for me to imagine that we don’t have what someone’s looking for,” he said.

The full kitchen has two distinct offerings—Hunt Brother’s Pizza and its own branded Miner’s Kitchen, which serves chicken, burgers and other grab-and-go fresh-made items. The store also bakes its own pastries. The drive-thru does a brisk business and customers can order everything from pizza to chips for pickup at the window.

The extensive fountain island stocks four slushie flavors, two frozen coffee flavors and 32 soda options, while the coffee bar has six coffee pots and tea urns. Lottery, alcohol, tobacco, candy and snacks round out the selection. Grant also tries to carry local brands when he can.

Pit Stop’s location right off the highway, combined with residential traffic from the nearby college, provides a very diverse customer base. He overhauled the store in 2021 and added new fuel islands capable of dispensing Mobil-branded regular, mid, premium, E85 and diesel.

More Than a Name

Beyond the products and fuel, Pit Stop’s biggest claim to fame is its employees. “We regularly receive an average of 99% on all of our Mobil inspections when it comes to customer service,” Grant said. “I think that’s because the people working for me aren’t just a name on the payroll—I get to know every single one of them.”

When Grant visits the store, he checks in with the employees, who often see him jumping in to help ring up customers or clean the bathroom. “Anything that needs doing while I’m there, I do it if my employees are helping customers,” he said. “That means a lot to my team because they see I’m willing to pitch in.”

He attributes the store’s very low turnover to his genuine interest in his employees, many of whom have been with him for years. General manager Felicia Crabtree has been with the business since 2016, while assistant manager Josh Shreve came onboard in 2017. Grant calls Crabtree “the glue that holds the store together.” In addition, his wife, Kaitlin Grant, works as director of finance, and their two children often help out during store events.

At the end of the day, “Customers can buy a bottle of soda anywhere, so why should they buy it from us? It’s for the experience of interacting with our employees, who make them feel valued and glad they came into Pit Stop,” Grant said. “If we can make our customers leave feeling better than when they came in, that’s what we’re aiming for.”