While Fav Trip tries not to take itself too seriously, it does take making a memorable experience for customers seriously. “We’re a fun, edgy brand that continually experiments to learn and keep moving forward,” said owner Babir Sultan. “Our policy is come happy, leave happy.”

Sultan, who started running Fav Trip with his family when he was 25, draws on his IT background and retail marketing experience to generate buzz about his brand on social media, solve problems and enhance the store experience for both customers and employees.

Sticking to the Basics

The Missouri-based company has four locations: two stores in Kansas City, and one each in Independence and Grandview. All offer 24-hour delivery options, and two locations have drive-thrus.

Fav Trip carries most of the typical convenience store merchandise, from salty snacks and sweets to beverages and tobacco, plus branded deli foodservice with fresh-made sandwiches and salads. However, you won’t find alcohol or lottery tickets.

“We didn’t want to offer beer or wine because it’s our personal preference. We want to set ourselves apart by not including alcohol in our store,” Sultan said. “We are also working toward changing our business model enough that we can ditch tobacco in the future too.”

With his IT background, Sultan uses data as the basis for most business decisions. “Whenever we have to decide about signing a contract with a distributor, we’ll consider the data closely to see whether the products are aligning with what our customers are buying,” he said.

For example, a local coffee company currently fulfills its fresh coffee service, but the Grandview location just started trialing national brand Caribou Coffee. “I’ll look at the data from the pilot program and if it looks good, then we’ll switch all locations to Caribou,” he said.

Using His Talents

Sultan initially resisted coming to work in the convenience industry. When he and his family moved from New York to Kansas City, his parents leased a convenience store and convinced him to run it for them. “I didn’t want to do it at first,” he said. “Now I love it.”

Like all new ventures, there was a learning curve in the beginning stages. “I was learning on the job as I went along, but now we use NACS resources to help us,” Sultan said.

For example, he said the Good Job Strategy, which NACS helped bring to the convenience store industry, was a gamechanger for him when it came to enhancing the job for employees. “We took a lot of the advice about creating culture and hiring strategies directly from that program,” Sultan said. “It’s been extremely helpful in developing our HR practices, like over-hiring and cross-training.”

One thing that he implemented is a monthly one-on-one meeting between workers and store managers. “We use this time to find out more about how the employee is doing in the job as much as we do to let them know things to work on,” he said. Fav Trip also gives employees financial assistance beyond paychecks if the company learns the worker is struggling with transportation or other personal financial stressors. “We like to help out in those circumstances whenever possible, so they come happy and leave happy at work,” he said.

Sultan combined his IT experience with retail marketing and uses his computer background to fix technology problems at the store, such as register issues. He also likes drawing on his skills to promote the industry. He had dabbled in shooting short videos with an IT buddy on the weekends, so he brought that to Fav Trip by creating mini-movies, including one about a wedding that happened inside a store.

“I also started making these shoplifting videos to have a fun experience around something that costs the industry a lot,” Sultan said. His YouTube channel features videos of shoplifters caught at his stores through live AI cameras. “It’s really lowered shrinkage at our stores, and customers also leave positive comments on our YouTube channel about the videos,” Sultan said. In addition to YouTube, the store has an active Facebook page as well. Sultan has also written a book, Fuel for Success, about his journey of moving to the United States, entrepreneurship and lessons learned from growing the Fav Trip business.

Overall, he strives to provide each customer and employee with a positive experience at Fav Trip. “We want to be a local business that impacts our communities in a positive manner,” Sultan said.