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R.H. Smith
Distributing's Conoco stations feature a Smitty's, the company's own
c-store. We named it Smitty's because Smith is our family name as well as
the most widely seen surname in America.
The company built its first c-store in 1979, although
R.H. Smith had been involved with earlier efforts to combine groceries,
restaurants, and gasoline pumps. Rod Smith remembers how unusual the QSR
concept was in 1985. "The state Department of Labor and Industries
sent a team of four people to our store in rural Washington to figure out
how to categorize our employees. For several days they studied our operations
because they had never heard of people working in a restaurant inside a
c-store," Smith says.
Although there is no specific Smitty's brand, R.H. Smith
Distributing has partnered with a major coffee company to provide Rick's
Coffee Bar in each of its stores. Named after Rick Smith, its coffee club
theme is "Pour it again, Sam." The coffee bar idea came from
one of the brothers' late night brainstorming sessions after their father
challenged them to come up with a profit center for the store that would
be exclusively Smitty's. While not every Smitty's location sells food,
several have seating areas for their QSR offerings.
According to Rod Smith, the stores have co-branded with
several "second-tier QSRs: Orion Food Systems, Taco Maker, and
Piccadilly Circus Pizza." They are currently negotiating a contract
to open a full-sized Burger King in their next store. Rather than design
a standard architectural look for the stores, Smitty's tries "to
keep more attuned to the demographics of the local clientele," says
Smith.
Several stores feature the company's gasoline memorabilia
collection, which Doug started in 1980 and R.H. Smith now oversees. The
collection includes antique and porcelain signs and a glass tank globe
from Rainbow Oil, the original True's oil company brand. "Depending
on market studies, we will decorate our new stores with this antique
theme," says Smith. The company's expansion goals center on
increasing the number of gallons sold annually, rather than adding a specific
number of new locations. "Our future goal in is to be selling 75
millions gallons a year," says Smith. "We are constantly
evaluating wholesale and retail sites."
The company will continue to operate in its present
locale, which Smith characterizes as a"large growth area where there
is plenty of opportunity and by no means over-saturation of the
industry."
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