Name of company:
Astoria Mini Mart East
Year founded:
1988
# of stores:
1
Website:
astoriaminimart.com/astoria-east/
Like many kids, Krista Patterson’s career plans did not involve joining the family business. Her father, Don Patterson, bought Warrenton Mini Mart in 1988, then added Astoria Mini Mart a year later. In 2014, he purchased Astoria Mini Mart East in Astoria, Oregon, and operated all three stores for several years.
Today, she is carrying on her father’s legacy by running his convenience store.
“Starting at 14, I worked at the stores’ Taco Time franchise and at the espresso stands,” Krista Patterson said. “A few years later, I started doing the books. Then I left for college, telling myself I would never come back.”
Eight years later, in 2014, she returned to take over management of Astoria Mini Mart East, which is now the only one her father owns—he sold Astoria Mini Mart in 2017 and the Warrenton location in 2022.
Full Circle
The way Patterson tells it, her father recognized she wasn’t “doing much with [her] life” and “[he] made me realize I should try running the store before he gave it to someone else or sold it. He was reaching retirement age and pushed me to come home.”
It’s a decision she hasn’t regretted. “I took a lot for granted growing up in Astoria, which is a beautiful part of Oregon where the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean met,” she said. “I didn’t appreciate its beauty as a teenager, but now I get to live on the beach in a place where people come to vacation.”
Astoria Mini Mart’s famous fried chicken uses a recipe developed by the founder, Don Patterson.
When she started working at the store, she also recognized many of the customers. “It made me feel proud to hear from locals how hard my mom and dad worked to make the store a success, and it really opened my eyes to how much the store has been, and is, a part of the local community,” Patterson said. “My whole mindset changed. While this wasn’t my initial dream job, it is a job that allows me to do a lot of the things I wanted to do.”
Working for herself gives Patterson the freedom to volunteer and carry on her parents’ community-minded focus of the store. “I watched my parents do a lot for the community, and one of the best things about my job is that it brings me closer to the local residents,” she said.
She kept some of the existing community initiatives her parents had and added her own ways that the store could give back to the community. The store sponsors sports teams and offers free laundry services to people in need in its attached laundromat. Patterson volunteers for the annual Astoria Regatta, and sits on the boards of Scholarship Inc. in Warrenton and the Warrenton Schools Foundation.
Unique Store Services
While Patterson enjoys the social and community aspects of her job, she hasn’t forgotten that she’s running a business. “We’ve built a reputation over the last 37 years and we make sure we meet customers’ expectations each time they enter the store,” she said.
Astoria Mini Mart East boasts several services not typically associated with convenience stores, such as an attached laundromat and a growler fill station with 42 taps. The station has 36 craft beers, 90% of which are from Oregon and Washington breweries. There are also five kombucha flavors. A beer cave offers a large craft bottled- and canned-beer selection, while bait caters to those who come to fish in nearby waters. The gift shop offers t-shirts, hoodies, glassware and growlers for sale.
Bright Ideas
Krista Patterson, manager of Astoria Mini Mart East in Astoria, Oregon, is always on the lookout for healthy food items to stock in the store. “I’m a healthy eater, so I like to bring in items I want to eat,” she said. To find those products, she attends the NACS Show.
“I found these three-packs of Cuties (a brand of little oranges) at the NACS Show and brought them into my store, and those have been selling well,” she said. Other better-for-you products she discovered at the show include squeezable NOKA smoothies, hummus and packaged pickles.
For food, the store serves her father’s famous fried chicken with homemade ranch and fry sauces, along with jojos—hand-cut and hand-breaded potato wedges.
More than the products and services, the store’s employees are a key reason people stop by. “You’re greeted by staff members, usually the same ones because we have a very low turnover, and that’s really what separates us from other stores,” Patterson said.
She credits workers sticking around to “legitimately caring about all of them. I always have my office door open to talk about work or their personal life.” Most employees have worked at the store for three years or more.
Today, Patterson has no regrets about taking over the family business. “My dad taught me to look at everything from a customer’s point of view—how are they seeing things in the store? It takes a lot of hard work to be here all the time but it’s worth it if we can make one person smile and leave happier than when they came in.”