Dandy has a long been a staple of rural Pennsylvania and New York. With locations mostly in mid-range to small cities, the chain owned by the Randy Williams family has been building its reputation for great quality at a good value for more than three decades.

The company grows mostly through acquisition, buying small stores in rural areas. “We like to serve the rural customer,” said Bill Bustin, marketing director for Dandy, which is headquartered in Sayre, Pennsylvania. That simple philosophy grew Dandy into a 65-unit chain.

Bustin, who grew up going to Dandy, said that isn’t surprising. “Dandy represents a sense of community and great customer service at a good value—that’s what keeps our customers coming back,” he said.

A Dandy Environment

Part of what makes Dandy unique is its settings. “We have an incredible assortment of architecture in the buildings we operate,” Bustin said. For example, Dandy stores are housed in a log cabin and a former church. “That gives us lots of character both inside and outside,” he said.

One recently opened location is inside the Piollet Mansion in Wysox, Pennsylvania. Built in the mid-19th century, the large manor home with a distinctive cupula retains the original molding and other features. “Although we added a modern wing to hold more coolers and a larger foodservice area, we are keeping and restoring a lot of the original finishes,” Bustin said.

The company’s corporate philanthropy helps it connect both to the community and to the employees. Each Christmas, the stores participate in a Dandy Cane fundraiser with the donations going directly to local charities. “We use the stores and the brand to get as much money into small organizations as we can,” Bustin said.

Besides cash donations, Dandy allows groups, like Little Leagues, Girl Scouts, high school sports teams and PTAs, to request donations outside of their stores, too. The company also teams up with local police departments each September to donate gift cards for the officers to give to motorists who exhibit safe driving as kids go back to school. “That fits our brand as a gas station to help these officers recognize safe drivers at the beginning of the school year,” Bustin said.

A Dandy Kitchen

Dandy has always focused on foodservice. “We’re famous for our Dandy pizza, which is a huge driver for us,” Bustin said. Each store proofs and hand-presses pizza dough to make the pies, which include a popular breakfast version.

We have an incredible assortment of architecture in the buildings we operate.

The fresh-made foodservice program also has subs and sides. Each quarter, the company runs food specials to increase awareness and drive traffic to its foodservice. “We also have healthier fare, like wraps, salads and yogurts, plus more kid-friendly menu items,” Bustin said.

While the core items—subs and pizza—don’t change, Dandy does try out new menu items to keep the food offerings fresh. Not everything has been a success, though. “We did a test soup program but couldn’t get the math right on preventing too much waste,” Bustin said, adding that the chili was the only part of the soup trial that stayed on the menu.

Because many new Dandys are store acquisitions, the company will often keep menu favorites on the board at those stores. For example, one recently acquired store near Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, had a sandwich named after the school mascot, “The Bombers.” That sandwich—a cheesesteak with chicken fingers and wing sauce—stayed on the menu, and Bustin said the company is even considering adding it to other stores.

The c-stores have a robust grab-and-go section under the Dandy banner. In addition, stores carry an assortment of local jerky, candy and cheese to provide that extra connection to the community. The more recent stores have seating to encourage customers to linger after picking up a meal.

A Dandy Outlook

For Dandy, the future looks, well, dandy. A corporate newsletter profiles employees who personify the Dandy spirit. “Providing great quality at a good value is at the core of what we do,” Bustin said. “We try to keep prices down and the quality of foodservice up. We hire locally, and our best-performing stores are the ones where we have long-time managers from the community.”

The company works equally hard to keep customers coming into their stores as it does to keep employees happy working at those stores. “A lot of our folks are proud to work at Dandy, and I think that says a lot about our company,” he said.