Mapco Express is on track to nearly triple its base of travel centers this year. Okla.-based Williams Cos. has identified locations as far west as Arizona, as far east as Virginia and as far south as Florida, said James Alligood, president of Mapco Express. The expansion move comes at a time when ownership of interstate truck stops and convenience stores is fragmented.
Many facilities are old and in disrepair.
Also, consumers are demanding cleaner, better-lit places to make their pit stops. And spending at convenience stores is up. In bigger cities, convenience-store operators are improving their facilities to offer cleaner restrooms and better food. The upgrade appears to be spreading to the outer fringes of metro areas and to places where interstates connect, said Lexi Hutto, director of marketing at MPSI Systems Inc., a Tulsa, Okla.-based marketing research firm that specializes in petroleum businesses. Mapco Express now has 11 travel centers, including one in Lebanon that opened last year, and envisions a network of 85 locations by 2001.