It started in 1936 with a hand-painted billboard.
Local foot traffic was minimal and stagnant. Sales weren’t growing. And with the recent birth of their second child, store owners Ted and Dorothy Hustead were worried about going broke. They needed to draw more attention to their five-year-old retail site on Main Street in Wall, South Dakota, about a half a mile from the highway.
“There was a constant drone of tourist cars coming out of the Badlands on U.S. 16 and 14. [Dorothy] had an idea,” said current store owner Rick Hustead. “She told Ted, I think we should let people know we’re here. We should put a sign up that says, ‘Get a soda. Get a beer. Turn next corner. Just as near to highway 16 and 14.’”
And the real kicker: “Free ice water. Wall Drug.”
They made the sign, put it up and before Ted got back to the store, the first customers had already stopped, said Rick Hustead, Wall Drug’s current owner and Ted and Dorothy’s grandson. “They were giving out glasses of free ice water, which on a hot day in cars with no air conditioner sounded really good. They were selling ice cream cones, Coca-Cola, knickknacks and snacks. And instantly, they [turned their slow sales around].”
Today, Hustead runs Wall Drug Store with his daughter Sarah, vice president and the fourth generation Hustead in the family business.
“Road-trip season is huge,” he said. “In six months we do 70% of our business for the year.”
A Memorable Destination
Retailers who recognize their place along well-traveled routes can cash in with signage, unique design, local products, souvenirs and nostalgia.
That was the whole strategy behind the creation of the Wally’s retail brand. Currently building its third site near Indianapolis, founders and cousins Michael Rubenstein and Chad Wallis brainstormed a must-stop retail concept that they hoped could become a remarkable and unexpected resting point.
The result: a 30,000-square-foot travel stop with 76 fuel pumps that’s half convenience store/restaurant and half souvenir/collectibles shop. The first store sits on 20 acres in Pontiac, Illinois, along Interstate 55, previously part of Route 66, the legendary highway that opened the West to travelers from points east back in the 1930s. The brand has dubbed itself “Home of the Great American Road Trip.”
“The entire [Wally’s] concept is loosely based on a 1970s or ’80s road trip. [The name] was a slight nod to Wally World [from National Lampoon’s Vacation]. ... That really was the inspiration the entire time—unexpected delight—and we’ve stayed true to that,” said Andy Strom, chief experience officer for the retailer based in St. Louis. “Little elements stand out. Our soda labels on the soda fountain are retro from the ’70s and ’80s. That’s a little touch that people pick up on along the way. Small touches that bring our guests back and put smiles on faces.” 
Proudly dubbing itself “Home of the Great American Road Trip,” Wally’s has built several nostalgic design elements into its 30,000-square foot stores, including a full-sized recreational vehicle converted for branded merchandise display.
Other unique touches include a full-size Winnebago Brave recreational vehicle—an iconic road warrior of the 1970s and ’80s—that’s been converted into a retail display; a taxidermy diorama of common Midwestern animals having a party and wearing Wally’s gear; and a vintage Jeep Wagoneer in front of the store that’s “converted to be an iconic part of what happens outside of the store. ... It’s elements like that in the store that stand out.”
Building a Billboard Strategy
A billboard calls out an early foodservice offer at Wall Drug.
Wall Drug Store’s first sign was such a success that it didn’t stop there.
“Ted thought, if one sign had such a dramatic impact, what would 30 or 40 Wall Drug signs do?” current store owner and grandson of original owner Ted Hustead, Rick Hustead said. “He started putting up Wall Drug signs east and west of Wall, South Dakota, leading [motorists] to Wall Drug. It was then that Wall Drug was really on its way.” Now a kitschy but welcome sight to travelers nearly 90 years later, there are still about 300 Wall Drug billboards across the north-central United States, some of them up to 300 miles from the single store location, according to Hustead. Some line up over a stretch of road, counting down the distance to the store. “We covered South Dakota. We expanded into Wyoming and Minnesota,” he said. “It’s really how we stayed in business and how we stay in business today.” Since opening its JP Travel Center in Jackson, Georgia, Jones Petroleum has leaned on billboards to attract travelers to the store about 45 miles south of Atlanta with a cheeky message about its “golden toilet” to drive home a message of clean restrooms. “One of our owners worked with our billboard broker to come up with the golden toilet campaign,” said Ken Johnson, director of marketing operations. “We have been running it for about four years on about 15 boards, and we change up the slogan yearly.” The company, which operates about 50 convenience stores, reserves the golden toilet campaign for the travel center. “This was our first travel center, and the only time we have used this type of billboard design,” Johnson said. Jones Petroleum will open two more travel centers this year and next.
Ted Hustead painted an abandoned billboard in South Dakota in the 1930s. His family’s Wall Drug Store would become a legendary stop for travelers across the Great Plains states.
Building a Brand
For Denise Molnar, co-owner of Tioga Gas Mart and Whoa Nellie Deli 20 minutes from the east entrance to Yosemite National Park in California, collectibles—such as branded water bottles, mugs, stickers, etc.—are a source of pride.
“The gift store provides all ranges of souvenirs, from postcards to T-shirts and locally crafted art,” she said. “We have to think ahead since they are mostly custom-made and often take weeks to get through production.”
Tourist season is immensely important to Tioga Gas Mart/Whoa Nellie Deli as winter weather forces the shop, and the main road, to close for up to six months of the year.
“We are a seasonal business, so we stay open from the end of April to early November,” Molnar said. “Business really ramps up when Tioga Pass opens, which depends on the amount of snow received during the winter. Once schools get out, we go into full summer mode with huge summer crowds.”
Having the collectibles available and fully stocked in time for that seasonal opening is of utmost importance.
“We try to stock up on as many items as we can before [opening] so we don’t run out of stock. Always being flexible when certain brands are unavailable is key,” she said. “Keeping track of high-selling items is important. If possible, we can order pallets and large quantities of items that we know sell fast.”
When convenience retailer Jones Petroleum opened its first JP Travel Center in Jackson, Georgia, in 2019, it purposely made itself the first site for drivers coming in or out of Atlanta on Interstate 75.
Working with designers Paragon Solutions, Jones included a 2,500-square-foot gift section right up front, displaying home decor and University of Georgia collectables. Other amenities of the site geared to motorists include spacious restrooms, a dog park and a well-stocked section of unique local products.
“Once people visit a Wally’s, they typically revisit Wally’s. It’s such a different experience that our guests not only like to visit themselves, they like to tell their friends about it, which is most important to us.”
“Our travel is seasonal for this location, [but] we do not do a lot of additional marketing since it’s only one unit and costs are prohibitive,” said Ken Johnson, director of marketing operations at Jones Petroleum. “Our product mix changes based on seasonality inside the location.” The retailer will open its second travel center in LaGrange, Georgia, in mid-2025 and a third in Midway, Georgia, about a year later.
At Wally’s, the souvenirs and collectibles are all about branding and fun.
“We love to create memorable items that folks like to purchase when they have the opportunity to visit one of our stores, whether it’s hats or T-shirts or drinkware,” Strom said. “We just did a collaboration with a lifestyle brand called Camp Wandawega. That’s really fun. [The products are] displayed on our Winnebegos.”
Jones Petroleum aims to create a reputation for sparkling clean restrooms with its “golden toilet” billboard campaign, now in its third year, to promote its JP Travel Center.
Camp Wandawega is an Elkhorn, Wisconsin-based manufacturer “of goods that help us explore the great outdoors.” The Wally’s-branded products include items for camping and summertime activities, ranging from frisbees and paddle games to flasks, koozies and hats. “We’re looking to do more brand collaborations in the future,” Strom said. “We’re always creating new retail items to keep things fresh and push the envelope.”
With a 76,000-square-foot store, Wall Drug has a lot of retail space to fill, and customers can walk out with everything from coffee mugs, potholders and magnets to entire Western outfits. There are also exhibits: a sculpture garden, apothecary museum, game room and more.
“We have a lot of souvenirs; that’s a big section for us,” Hustead said. “We have Black Hills Gold jewelry, which is really popular, in two different jewelry departments.” His daughter Sarah sourced all of the handmade native American turquoise and silver jewelry.
“We also have 6,000 pairs of cowboy boots on display and for sale. We have Western clothing. We have a poster-printing shop. We sell original art, pottery ... all kinds of things,” said Hustead.
The retailer aims to have 90% of the merchandise it’s going to sell during the travel season on hand by May. “There’s a huge push getting the merchandise in. My wife, Patt, runs our camping department, and she’s getting in merchandise every day and marking it for the coming season,” Hustead said in January.
The branded items serve their purpose as keepsakes and marketing tools, but the true goal is crafting a unique experience and creating word-of-mouth recommendations.
“Once people visit a Wally’s, they typically revisit Wally’s,” said Strom. “It’s such a different experience that our guests not only like to visit themselves, but like to tell their friends and families, which is most important to us.”
Pleasing the Customer
The keys to a good road-trip store are first-rate facilities and customer service.
“It starts with the restrooms. Those have to be meticulously clean,” Strom said. Wally’s bathrooms have touchless fixtures and are cleaned every hour.
Wall Drug Store has effectively made itself one of the attractions for road tripping across the Great Plains region by pairing its branded souvenirs with those for other local landmarks.
Jones Petroleum committed extra space to the restrooms for privacy. Owner Bill Jones said the upscale restrooms were the “real home run” of the company’s first travel center at the time of opening. “It’s the moms out there who are going to pick where to stop for coffee or a bite to eat,” Jones said, “and she’s going to settle on restrooms that she knows are clean.”
At Wall Drug Store, “We have a special crew that cleans our bathrooms because in our industry—roadside attractions—people judge us based on how clean the bathrooms are,” Hustead said. “It’s a big deal.”
Synergy Co-op, which has 17 Cenex-branded convenience stores in northwest Wisconsin, sees travelers heading north to fish, camp and attend any number of local summer festivals.
Preparation for the season includes a spring cleanup of each store, inside and out, and making sure equipment—from plumbing and the POS system to light bulbs and shelving—is in good and clean shape.
From there, the Ridgeland, Wisconsin-based chain calls attention to the sites with timely promotions through radio ads and electronic sign boards outside the stores.
“That’s one of the things I would hit up on my radio ads,” said Category Manager Sean Rooney, “talking about road-trip season. Here in northwest Wisconsin, festivals are a very big thing—muskie festivals, rodeos, aquatic fests. Every town has its own festival. People come up to go to [their favorite] lake, but they’re also going out to Chippewa Falls or Eau Claire for music, so there’s a lot of opportunity to talk about [road-trip travel].”
Retail Division Manager Troy Strand added that the retailer uses its electronic signs to let people know a store’s seasonal product offer.
“We contracted with a company out of the Twin Cities that does all of our marketing on our electronic reader boards out in front on our stores,” he said. “We’ll post some road-trip ads out there. Social media is a big one, too. We’ll send a blast to all of our followers on Facebook or elsewhere.”
Wally’s uses the slower months to make sure equipment and facilities are working appropriately.
Wall Drug set a template for many of the things that should go into a good road-trip stop.
The Route to Road-Trip Readiness
For retailers hoping to take advantage of their location along well-traveled road-trip routes, here are some ideas from those who are already making it happen.
Offer something everyone driving past needs or wants: free water, free doughnuts, affordable fountain, camping necessities and clean restrooms.
Create a theme or represent a community or attraction with souvenirs, nostalgia and local color, products and food to create a unique offer.
Tell a story ... about your store, about the area, about a local hero, etc.
Promote the heck out of your store and related promotions through billboards, radio ads and pump toppers.
If traffic is seasonal, place merchandise orders early so the store is fully stocked when the rush begins.
Staff up in time for seasonal booms.
Use slower months to revamp and update the store and merchandising as necessary.
“While we have these quieter months, we look into our facilities and make sure that things are operating as efficiently as they can,” Strom said. “We’re fixing anything that needs work so that once [traffic] ramps up, we’re firing on all cylinders.”
Excellent customer service is similarly important. “It’s appreciated in the moment and drives repeat visits,” Hustead said. “All our employees are our representatives, and that’s something we really emphasize, to be polite and courteous to our customers.”
That means maintaining meticulous attention during the hiring process. In preparation for busy season, Wall Drug staffs up from 70 employees to nearly 200.
“I’ve got 35 [new employees lined up] right now, so I’m on a good track,” Amanda Frink, HR director at Wall Drug, said, noting in January that she was in the process of hiring 110 employees. “We have a big store, and that’s what it takes to run it during summer hours.”
Wall Drug leans into the designation of being a “roadside attraction” and focuses on hiring international college students, “workampers” and foreign nationals through H-2B visas.
“All our employees are our representatives, and that’s something we really emphasize, to be polite and courteous to our customers.”
The store employed 80 international college students and 20 “workampers” in 2024. Workampers, according to publication Workamper News, are “adventuresome individuals, couples and families who have chosen a lifestyle that combines any kind of part-time or full-time work with RV camping.” Frink said the number of H-2B visa workers is “always up in the air,” as it’s based on a government lottery. “Last year, we got five, and the previous year there were 26,” she said.
New and Noticed
One of the things road trippers stop the most for: food.
“We’re constantly tweaking our retail mix. We’re constantly tweaking and adding items to our c-store and Wally’s-branded offerings,” Strom said. “We try to keep it fresh, whether it’s new merchandise, new Wally’s snacks, seasonal food items, or popcorn flavors.”
At Wally’s, whose newest store under construction in Whitetown, Indiana, will be 54,000 square feet, customer favorites include foodservice “experience stations.” These are the bakery, coffee section and Wally’s BBQ Sandwich House, as well as a proprietary popcorn program.
“Not only do we pop it fresh in-house, we grow it ourselves,” Strom said. “[We’ve got] more than 80 acres of cornfields on the Illinois-Missouri border. We like to say it goes from field to popper. That’s something that differentiates us. It’s our own product, our own recipes. It’s a much more premium product.”
Wall Drug Store makes itself synonymous with road trips through creative use of branded souvenirs.
At Wall Drug Store, it’s the homemade doughnuts that stand out.
“In the late ’50s, we started giving out doughnuts to all military veterans and active military,” Hustead said. “When I came back [to the business] 44 years ago at 30 years old, the first thing my dad had me do was learn how to make the doughnuts. Now we have 10 people making doughnuts. He would say, ‘We can never run out of doughnuts!’”
They’re still free to veterans and active service men and women, too. “It’s part of our customer service. We give them a free coffee and a free doughnut and thank them for their service,” Hustead said. “I think it’s one of the coolest things we do.”
Wall Drug also operates the Western Art Gallery Restaurant that seats more than 500 people. It’s known for its rolls, pies and ice cream, as well as hot beef sandwiches, buffalo burgers and five-cent coffee.
Jones Petroleum also invested in foodservice, including space for three QSRs in its 23,000-square-foot travel center. The site includes Burger King, Dunkin’ and Subway, two of them with drive-thru windows.
And at Tioga Gas Mart, its Whoa Nellie Deli is its most popular attraction, according to Molnar.
“We have a very well-known restaurant inside our store. Menu items consist of something for everyone, from slices of pizza to fish tacos and elk chops,” she said. “Plus we have a nice selection of craft beer and quality wines.”
While being in such an out-of-the way location can make for a challenging business atmosphere, Molnar points out one benefit that makes it worthwhile as a retailer.
“We see travelers from all around the world, so our clientele varies a lot,” she said. “However, we are lucky in the regard that most people who come to Tioga Gas Mart are on vacation. So all in all, they are mostly happy to be here.”