History

In the 1960s, Jr. Food Mart was chartered as a subsidiary to the supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

 chain Jitney Jungle

Jitney Jungle

Jitney Jungle was a chain of supermarkets that began in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1919.-Origins:Originally, brothers Judson McCarty Holman and William Henry Holman and their cousin William Bonner McCarty founded a charge-and-carry grocery store in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1912...

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Today, the company is an independent company with many leased locations.

They operate convenience stores throughout Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 and Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

. At one time, they had franchise locations from Texas to Florida, and as far north as Ohio.

All the stores sell gasoline and groceries. Many of them have fast service restaurants featuring, amongst others, the well-known Creole Fried Chicken. The name and concept of spicy chicken was obtained from one of their franchisees, Sonny Adams. While the chicken recipe that Mr. Adams had created was indeed, quite spicy, it was modified and adapted to be accepted in a wide variety of locations, and the resulting flavor, while still mildly spicy, was more like the flavor of Church's Fried Chicken. This was in no small part because the Creole Fried Chicken concept was developed by Brian T. Reynolds and Shane Mitchell, whose experience in this concept came from that company.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, most of their locations were in small towns at or near the primary intersections of the communities (commonly referred to as "Main and Main"). At that time, the company was led by Howard Blair, its President, and Russell Stutzman, the Executive Vice President. Other notable members of the management team were Lee Crook, Director of Convenience Store Operations, and Shane Mitchell, Director of Food Service Operations. The company experienced rapid growth during this period, due to the talent of Mr. Blair in locating and securing exceptional properties and favorable lease terms for its franchisees. This combined with well-developed store designs and one of the most successful fast-food concepts of its time, made Jr. Food Mart one of the innovators of the convenience store industry during that time period. The current model of convenience store/fast food hybrids that include Mc Donald's, Taco Bell, and others into convenience store locations, can well be traced back to the successful implementation of Creole Fried Chicken into the Jr. Food Mart store designs.

This chain is not related to a different chain called Jr. Food Stores

Jr. Food Stores

Jr. Food Stores is a chain of convenience stores operating in south central Kentucky and northern Middle Tennessee, with approximately 41 retail locations. It is owned by Houchens Industries.The chain is not related to Jr...

 that operates in south central Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

 and northern middle Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

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