Just saw a comment on a post about Stop N' Go "hex" concept stores (original post here: https://midsouthretail.blogspot.com/2018/08/contributor-post-stop-n-go-hex-stores.html, which I don't remember getting a notification about, thank you very much Blogger)! Anyway, I decided to do a brief post as a companion to that very interesting blog entry.
Southaven Mississippi had a standard Stop N' Go store, pre-dating the hex concept by many years. If I remember correctly, this Stop N' Go location lasted until the Circle K buyout. Shortly after that buyout, Circle K decided to relocate right next door to a former ranch-style Shell station (giving them a prime corner lot, with gas pumps they did not have at the original Stop N' Go). Unfortunately, instead of just taking over that classic Shell, they bulldozed it (pumps, canopy, and all), and replaced it with the building and pump canopy that still stands today (albeit slightly remodeled now from what this older photo shows):
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| Circle K, Hwy 51 at Mississippi Valley Blvd. Southaven Mississippi |
If I'm not mistaken, the store opened with Circle K-branded gas, then it carried STP gas for a number of years. By 2007, it was selling Union '76-branded gas, and by 2013 it had switched to Shell, which brought it "full circle" (so to speak!), back around to the original brand that had been on that corner since back in my childhood days.
So, what became of the old, next-door Stop N' Go building? At some point (very late 80's, perhaps early 90's) it was a dance studio (which eventually moved into it's own new building close by), and finally (2003?*) became the home of a Disco Tech record store:
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| Disco Tech occupies the original Stop N' Go location |
*The Disco Tech website (link below) claims it has been owned by the same person since 2003 at least, which sounds about right for being when the place first opened.
Originally, this Stop N' Go had a flat roof, and the upper front facade was done up in yellow(!), with the red, green, and black Stop N' Go logo on that facade up above the door. Sounds a bit gaudy, and from what I remember it was, not to mention I remember they had let the facade fall into disrepair somewhat. Near as I can tell, Disco Tech is still alive and doing well! They do have a more updated front sign these days though. Website here: http://www.mydiscotech.com/index.html
Finally, to close out this post, a photo of an old Stop N' Go matchbook cover I have in my collection, done up in the classic logo:
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| Mid-1970's Stop N' Go matchbook cover |
Thanks for viewing this post, and happy blogging everyone!
Cool companion post! Gas station history seems so rich, but I don't know a single thing about it :P You and PlazaACME are my go-to sources in that department, haha! And wow - I think I may have heard of Disco Tech in passing, but never realized they were a music store! May have to check them out soon - thanks for the tip :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, and hope my posting doesn't throw you off schedule for some reason :P PlazaACME likely does way more researching than I do, plus in that part of the country there seems to be more variety of those cool old gas stations.
ReplyDeleteSeems like there was some sort of odd trick for adding captions to these photos, but danged if I can remember it - no matter what I did, the photos would "float to the top" after adding a caption XD
After that flickr announcement, I was going to do a post on that new AT&T/Starbucks at Tanger, while the building's wood framework was showing (as a companion to my "first steel beams" Tanger post), but I waited too late to get any photos of it in that early stage of construction!
You're welcome! And ha, no worries :P Still sticking to my monthly posting schedule, which as you saw I just completed for November! As long as we don't post at the exact same second (which might cause Blogger to implode XD ), I don't see any issue :)
DeleteHmm, that's strange! I know if you click on a photo it'll give you a little toolbar to change the sizes, add a link, etc., and that's where the "add caption" feature is. But that's odd that the pictures would float to the top of the post, regardless of however you tried to add a caption!
LOL! It's AT&T anyway, it probably didn't deserve a post XD
Unless flickr plays out entirely, my ability to find time to blog will be limited anyway I'm afraid. Just did this Stop N' Go post on the spur of the moment - and fun little scare while working on this last night, when I accidentally halfway unplugged my network cable from the back of the PC (long story, involving needing a USB cable to take to work to give my ailing phone life support every afternoon :P), and thought my internet service had went out yet again, strangely only to my computer though!
ReplyDeleteWell, guess it's not so strange after all, given that the captioning that acted crazy in Firefox (which I keep updated regularly) works perfectly well in my PC version of the Chrome browser!
Ha, good point!
Yikes, that's a scare indeed! Glad it all worked out, though. And also glad you were able to figure out the captioning, even though that is odd that it wouldn't work in a regularly updated browser... oh, Blogger!
DeleteNice! There were a few Stop N Go logos over the years, including an early 1980s one, and the script one that it had up until its demise. To follow up on my old post, while Diamond Shamrock disposed of the stand-alone Stop N Go stores (which included old 7-Eleven, UtoteM, and Circle K sites), the gas stations continued with Stop N Go and Diamond Shamrock's "food mart" brand, Corner Store. Diamond Shamrock later started developing Corner Store more and more as a "real brand" (the logo had a red hexagon with white letters) while Stop N Go was neglected. The death for Stop N Go came a few years after Valero Energy bought Diamond Shamrock, when Valero converted the Diamond Shamrock brand to Valero, and with it, so went the Stop N Go name, with the stores rebranded as Corner Store. Valero eventually developed the brand enough that it could be spun off as CST Brands. It was CST Brands that was sold to Alimentation Couche-Tard, which also owned Circle K.
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