The Sunoco station in the middle of Russell Township supplies fresh sandwiches, Amish fry pies, Mad Batter donuts and select cigars in a tall, glass-fronted humidor.
The Sunoco station in the middle of Russell Township supplies fresh sandwiches, Amish fry pies, Mad Batter donuts and select cigars in a tall, glass-fronted humidor.
The cozy, clean, modern store has a wide inventory of candy, chips, cookies and pop, but a large section is reserved for a variety of wines.
Within a few months, owners Steve and Kristen Gaetjens expect to have a kitchen for preparing breakfasts and lunches that can be taken to-go or, come spring, eaten on the new patio behind the building.
They have traveled a long and often rocky road to arrive at this point in their venture.
Back in 2007, the couple leased the gas station on the southwest corner of Chillicothe and Kinsman roads from long-time owner Ann Tanner and family.
“(They) ran it for many years as a Shell station,” Kristen said.
The couple had a partner and they planned to renovate the building and add indoor plumbing to replace the outdoor job johnny.
It took time and money to resolve the well and septic tank problems and that wasn’t all.
“We had no heat for a year,” Steve recalled.
Fixing up the business that first year was a project, but Kristen said the $8,000 they spent on the interior was worth it.
“What we had was cute,” she said, adding they soldiered through the 2008 recession like many small businesses.
Both were working at the time, so they hired a mechanic and then another, and then …
“We had five different mechanics until, in 2016, we said we’re done with mechanics,” she said.
They closed the garage and continued to sell under the Shell name, competing with Circle K on the diagonal corner for customers along the two heavily-traveled state roads.
They started planning to turn the empty garage space into a larger store, but their dream hit another roadblock when Circle K took over the entire northeast corner and built a huge convenience store, as well as installed multiple pumps in 2019 after two years of permitting and community objections.
“Competition is so fierce in the gas station business. We had no idea how hard it is,” Kristen said. “It’s marketing, marketing, marketing.”
They realized they needed to up their game, but the property was still owned by Tanner and family, so they hesitated to invest any more to upgrade it to a complete convenience store.
“Finally, they agreed to sell it — just before COVID hit,” Steve said. “It took a year to get everything designed and approved.”
In January 2021, the couple started demolition of the interior to build new walls that separate the kitchen, storage and cooler areas from shopping areas.
It got to a point where they closed the doors while they were renovating the interior.
“We had to close from May through October in 2021. We just couldn’t accommodate people safely anymore,” Steve said.
Kristen recalled the sign they hung out that said, “See you in July,” had to be updated every month through October.
“On November 3, we finally opened,” she said.
Since then, they have been waiting to have their kitchen grill, stove and ovens installed. The items were ready at Dubick Fixtures and Supply Inc. in Cleveland nearly a year before the kitchen area was prepared for them, Steve said.
Supply chain problems were a big reason for the holdup, he said.
Meanwhile, heavy winter snow took down the canopy over the gas tanks, necessitating a new installation preceded by pouring a concrete pad — and more delays.
The canopy concrete was finally poured in October, so both the tanks and the store finally are open and ready for business, Kristen said.
Customers who had to go elsewhere for gas and donuts are trickling back in, but she said she keeps looking for familiar faces and hoping they will stop by.
Kristen is also planning to wallpaper part of the store’s interior with a vinyl wrap around the beer cooler showing historic sites or events in Russell Township. Anyone with pictures of historic Russell can email her at manager@Russellsunoco.com.
“In the spring, we’re going to have a grand opening,” Kristen said. “We will make it a party.”
