This month, NACS talks to Aaron Littlefield, president, Littlefield Oil Company.
Aaron Littlefield
What role in the community do you think convenience stores should play?
Our convenience stores in rural Arkansas and Oklahoma play many roles in our communities. In many of our locations we may be the only source of fuel for the citizens of that community. They are also locations where people meet to socialize. Our convenience stores often provide food for dinner at night and can be the place someone goes to get medicine for a sick child after everything else is closed. In ways like these, our convenience stores are a very valuable part of the community.
What does NACS political engagement mean to you, and what benefits have you experienced from being politically engaged?
I think political engagement is so important to our industry and always has been. One simple proof is found when you look back over the last couple of years to all the things we went through during the pandemic. Political engagement was the crucial intermediary between the agencies making huge decisions and our industry, which was constantly trying to make things work on the street for real customers with immediate needs. With many politicians more hostile to our industry, political engagement is going to continue to be important in the future.
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What federal legislative or regulatory issues keep you up at night (with respect to the convenience store industry)?
There are many worrisome legislative and regulatory issues that we must deal with. What keeps me up at night are issues where the government seeks to be involved in our labor. We all know our people are what makes our businesses great. But we’ve certainly seen over the last couple of years government trying to involve themselves more with our labor force and the negative effect it has had on us.
What c-store product could you not live without?
This is a hard question with so many products so important to our business and our communities. We all must have the normal cokes and smokes, but for our company I think it would be gasoline. Gasoline is what drives more people to our stores every day where they buy all the other products we have for sale.