Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993 TAG: 9303110317
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLYNE H. McWILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THE ULTIMATE IN CONVENIENCE
Convenience has taken on a new meaning. Thanks to the Ultimate Mart.It's the first convenience store in Roanoke to have a drive-through window.
Located on a busy stretch of Williamson Road near Forest Hill Avenue, the store is in a prime location to catch people who are in a hurry and don't feel like getting out of their cars. That's just what Howard Hall had in mind when he opened the store a little over a month ago.
Hall got the idea 10 years ago when he pulled into the parking lot of a bank and saw the difference between the line at the drive-through window and the one inside the bank.
"I got the idea that if it can work for a bank, it can work for a convenience store," Hall said.
People like shopping from their cars because they don't have to leave their cars or take their kids in the store, Hall said. It's also safer for women at night, he added.
Hall, who still works part time as an electronics technician at Lee Hartman & Sons Sound Equipment Inc., waited until he semi-retired to open the store. He wanted to dedicate more time to it and save the start-up money for the venture - about $25,000 - instead of getting a bank loan. "It's such a new concept, I doubt if we could have talked them into it," he said.
Although the drive-through aspect of the store is new to the Roanoke Valley, Hall is using a not-so-new concept to keep costs down: getting family members to help run the business. Along with Hall's wife, Carol, their two children, Ralph Emerson and Gwyn Hodges, and Ralph's wife, Becky, also work at the store. They take turns working around their other jobs to keep the store open 12 hours a day.
"This definitely cuts down on overhead," Hall said, chuckling.
Hall said business has picked up considerably since the store opened. The busiest hours are usually during lunch and at night. They already have some regular customers.
People can buy everything from lottery tickets to cat food from the window. But a few people have been disappointed to find that state law prohibits Hall from selling beer or wine at the window. But "we haven't lost a customer to that yet," Hall said.
Most of what Hall and his family does in the store in the next few months will be based on trial and error. For instance, they changed the opening hour from 7 to 9 a.m. because of the lack of early-morning business, and they're adding to their stock in response to customers' wishes. Hall said he's waiting to see if this store is a success before he makes plans to open another.