The Love Travel Stop & Country Stores company, doing business as Love’s (or stylized as Love’s), operates truck stops and convenience stores in 41 states throughout the country. Founded in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the company is privately owned. Among the 50 largest private companies in the United States, Love’s is ranked 17th on the latest Forbes list. A Love’s store can be classified as a country store or a travel stop. Convenience stores attached to fuel stations are called country stores.
Origins
Love Travel Stop & Country Stores, Inc. was founded in 1964 by Tom Love and his wife Judy in Watonga, Oklahoma. The Daily Oklahoman reported that Tom Love served in the Marines and excelled at college football. His entrepreneurial pursuits led him to drop out of school early. Before he discovered abandoned gas stations, he tried restaurants and car washes. It may have been in his blood to be in the business world and to do with oil. A report by Shawnee News-Star states that his father F.C. Love led Kerr-McGee Corp. when he was president.
Convenience in the 1970s
The first Love’s gas station and convenience store opened in Guymon, Oklahoma, in 1972. In time, these stores came to be known as Country Stores. The Journal Record reported that each of the buildings cost $300,000. The name Love’s first appeared in stores in 1978, the year a Love’s Country Store was established. More than 100 stations had been opened by the end of the decade.
Travel Stops in the 1980s
As early as the 1980s, the company shifted its focus to interstate locations. Amarillo, Texas, opened its first love travel stop in 1981. Showers, mail drops, and laundry machines were among the amenities offered at Travel Stops. Within a decade, Love’s had expanded to five states: Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. In late December 1986, the company was renamed Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Inc.
Branded Food in the 1990s
There were 125 Love’s convenience stores and truck stops in Oklahoma at the beginning of the 1990s. There were about 2,000 employees at the company. A local chapter of Sales and Marketing Executives International named the company Corporation of the Year in 1991. A Travel Stop concept was added to Love’s in the early 1990s with branded food outlets. Grandy’s restaurant opened in Oklahoma City in 1990. There was an expansion of the Taco Bell Express at another location in 1993. Some Pizza Hut stores began offering express services the following year.
New Technology After 2000
Since January 2001, the company has been known as Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores, Inc. In 2001, it appeared on Forbes magazine’s list of the 500 largest private companies in America. Despite a lackluster economy, the company’s expansion continued. In order to manage and link its stores, the company invested in information technology. A trial run of high-speed wireless Internet access was also offered to customers in late 2003, making it a vital attraction for travelers. A landline was previously used to access Love’s website. In addition to Truckstop.net, Sprint also provided a new wireless service.
