TA Lake City, Fl.

I think the trend that you've illustrated above is due to several factors. Among them.....

• Mom 'n' Pop grow old &/or pass away; the kids...&/or would-be owners elsewhere don't have the desire &/or the business savvy to take it over....& run it as before. Thus -- we sell it out to one of the major chains.
• I think it's getting more & more difficult for the mom-n-pops (that somehow are still in existence) to find, hire...& keep true quality help -- that will show up for work daily, do so on time, ready to actually do REAL work...& who can put the phone down long enough to make customers consistently feel welcome.
• The trucking community did this to itself. Partly becuz good hired help is harder & harder to find (& keep) -- truck stops raise prices to stay profitable (also getting more difficult) -- & do away with amenities that we used to take for granted. Thus -- the stops that still remain are increasingly unable to clean up the mess/trash left behind by those drivers who don't respect/care for the property. I think that higher prices/pay parking will run off a lot of this riffraff that has a CDL nowadays (no offense intended -- to those who are & do otherwise).
• Most (all?) of the decision-makers at the major chains have never been/stayed at an old-school-cool truck stop -- & thus don't try to recreate the coziness that these homey, down-to-earth truck stops provided.

It will of course be interesting to see how the Dollywood world enters & navigates the truckstop business. I think she will do a better job at it than the major chains (duuuuhhhh -- her competition has actually set the bar pretty low) -- but I'm pretty skeptical that she will successfully & consistently re-create that old-school-cool look, feel -- & taste .

We shall see....

-- L

 

It was expensive eating at truck stops 25 years ago but another nail in the coffin for sit down restaurants in the truck stops is that most trucks now have a small refrigerator and microwave in them.

 

Petro just south of there is my go to. Got good showers and hot food at the fuel island. Also in the main building is a sit down restaurant but food is the same old same old..Got a Wendy’s right next door also.

 

I’d cook at home on the weekend and then divide whatever I cooked into microwave containers. Reheat, eat, toss the container in the trash. No cleanup. Whatever I cooked at home was dang sure better than what a sit down restaurant in a truckstop tries to pass off as a meal these days. Had steak and eggs at Truckworld in Hubbard a while back when I was out there hauling propane. It was expensive and a pretty sorry excuse for a steak.

 

Petro in Reddick had really good food years ago. I personally have not been in there in a very long time.