ROADSIDE ENTERPRISE OFFERS 1-STOP SHOP FOR TRAVELERS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 21, 1992                   TAG: 9201210196
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RUCKERSVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium
ROADSIDE ENTERPRISE OFFERS 1-STOP SHOP FOR TRAVELERS
You need gas, burgers and fries, cough drops, dog food and baseball cards, but you don't want to make separate stops at the gas station, burger joint and convenience store.
Travelers on U.S. 29 get the chance to do it all in one place. In this town about 15 miles north of Charlottesville, a Burger King has been paired with a convenience store and self-service Exxon station.
"You can stop and get gas, then go in and get a hamburger, too," said Mark Campbell, 24, of Greene County, who was pumping gas.
"I was surprised when I saw it was a convenience store and gas station all with it," said Velma Houston, 54, of Ruckersville. "I was wishing I owned it."
Mountain Valley Corp. of Waynesboro, which operates nine Burger Kings in the area, runs the package. President Leroy Wilkinson said he has two more triple outlets planned in the Shenandoah Valley, the first of which could open as early as May.
The complex opened in September and Wilkinson said business has been "more than we anticipated."
Michelle Anderson, assistant manager of Burger King, said sales are leveling off but remain higher than the national average.
"If you drive down the street, the biggest cash generators out there are convenience stores, gas stations and restaurants," Wilkinson said.
But this complex also accepts credit cards, even at the Burger King.
That makes it easy for business people and groups to put Burger King on the expense account, said Keith Wright, director of operations for Mountain Valley.
Wilkinson said he got the idea after hearing of similar stores in Miami and Chicago, though those stores did not have a convenience store.
Bob Ortiz, general manager of the Ruckersville complex, said the operation blends together well. The convenience store is run more like a fast-food outlet than other convenience stores, Ortiz said.
The goal is "fast service in both places," he said. "Keith is fond of saying we like to apply Burger King principles to the convenience store trade."
Ortiz and Wright said the convenience store has stayed away from low-priced items like cheap wine, rolling paper, caffeine pills and other items that might attract loiterers.
"That's not the image we wanted to project," Ortiz said.
Jane Maxwell, spokeswoman for McDonald's Corp. based in Oakwood, Ill., said her company is not doing anything similar.
"We have looked at it, but nothing really more than that," she said.
Analyst Barry Stouffer, who follows fast food for J.C. Bradford & Co. in Nashville, Tenn., said such complexes have been tested over the past three years but are not common.
"If it'd been widely successful, you'd hear more of it," he said. "Would you want to buy a hamburger at a gas station?"
Wilkinson said that's one reason why he wanted to operate his complex under the restaurant name.
"The fast-food business is so competitive, we're all looking for other reasons for people to come to our location," Wilkinson said. "We think we've given them other reasons."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB