An El Paso Man Started This Mega Convenience Store Chain

An El Paso man, and 2 term El Paso mayor, single handedly started the 3rd biggest convenience store chain in the United States of America.

It was 1951 when El Paso businessman and former Mayor Fred Hervey noticed that the times were changing as far as peoples shopping habits and there weren't very many places to buy groceries 24 hours a day.

So, he bought 3 stores, then known as Kay's Food Store. I'll tell you where the "circle" came from in a minute since that's how we know them today ... Circle K.

Fred Hervey was a self made businessman who showed his entrepreneurial spirit early on. As a child, he sold magazine subscriptions and set up a soda stand in front of his Dad's outdoor theater.

Fred's Adult Life

That turned into a money making root beer stand which earned  Hervey the capitol to start other businesses and run for office. He served two terms as mayor of El Paso before he got around to founding Circle K.

Between '51 and '57, Hervey's 3 stores became 10 around El Paso and he branched out to Arizona. Now in 3 states, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona; this is when the "circle" pops up. Hervey decided on the encircled K to give his store logo a more western-ish feel.

By 1959, he had 15 stores in Arizona along with the first 10 in and around El Paso. Back then, convenience stores were a new thing with only a few hundred in the USA. Today, Circle K has almost 7,000 stores located all over the country in 47 out of the 50 states.