Before working at Love’s, Bryce Johnson had a variety of jobs—a warehouse worker, retail positions at Walmart and Target and several jobs in security. He never stayed at a job longer than six months.

Now he’s an overnight shift lead at a Love’s in Morris, Illinois, outside of Chicago, where he has worked since November 2022.

He spoke with NACS about:

Why he loves working in convenience

To me, it’s all about taking pride and ownership in my store and working with my team to ensure it is up to Love’s standards 24/7. And it’s the sense of camaraderie with the customers, especially our regulars, that I find so fulfilling. I genuinely do feel like I’m seeing my friends when they come in every morning.

What he loves about working the overnight shift

My team is such a close-knit group, so I love making sure they have what they need to succeed. A lot of what we do overnight, in addition to being there for our customers, is to get the store ready for the next day, so we handle a lot of cleaning, detailing and making sure everything looks great. I feel really proud when management comes in the next morning and remarks about how great the store looks.

My mom also works here at Love’s! I actually convinced her to come to the hiring event. We worked on the same shift before I moved to overnights.”

A memorable moment at Love’s

I still remember one of my first overnights as a shift lead. A contractor came into the store and asked me for the manager. For half a second I was thinking “Oh yeah, let me go get them,” but then I remembered “Oh wait, that’s me, I’m the manager on overnights!”

Why he would encourage someone to work in convenience

There are so many opportunities to build a fulfilling career if you put in the work and are open to learning something new. When I came to Love’s, I didn’t see this as a lasting career. Six months in, when my general manager asked me to be a shift lead, I was shocked. I think I told my GM “Are you for real right now?” It caught me off guard that anyone could see me as promotable.