Former Tom's #11 - Unique since the beginning

We've featured quite a few Tom's Convenience Stores here on Retail Forever over the past year, and before starting this post, I'll link them all here:

• Enola
• Etters
• Shrewsbury
• York (E. Market St)

And now, continuing that series, we find ourselves at another of their former stores, which has quite a history. So, without further ado, let's get started on today's spotlight, store #11. 

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TOM'S #11

Opened: 2000

Address:  1954 Old Philadelphia Pike

Photographed: February 2022 / March 2022

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Tom's #11 was the York-based chain's entry into Lancaster County. But to fully understand what happened here, we must go back to 1982, when Shipley-Humble, Inc opened a new type of gas station, the first of its type in Lancaster County. What made it so special, you may ask? What if I told you it sold two brands of gasoline. The new station would sell both Arco and Exxon gasoline. From the Lancaster New Era newspaper on January 10, 1982:

"We're trying to be a supermarket of petroleum products," said William S. Shipley, president of the York-based firm. Since the company distributes both Arco's and Exxon's products the combined location was feasible.

Clipping from Lancaster New Era, January 10, 1982. Archived via Newspapers.com

In late January 1982, Shipley's "Highland Acres Service Station" opened its doors. Things continued rather smoothly until around the turn of the decade, when the revolutionary service station converted to an Amoco, erasing the "Supermarket of petroleum products" concept and making this your average, run-of-the-mill gas station. 

 

Above are two advertisements, both for the Highland Acres station. The first, from a newspapers.com clipping dated May 19, 1988, shows the station as the same Exxon/Arco combo that it had at opening. The second, dated October 4, 1992, shows the station as an Amoco.

Then, soon after, the station was rebranded yet again, this time to a Mobil. It remained that way until 1999, when a plan was approved to demolish the small store and replace it with a brand-new Tom's Convenience Store, the first of its kind in Lancaster County. There's only one article I could find about the conversion, from October 6, 1999. I've included the article in its entirety below:

E. Lampeter Approves Convenience Store Plan

Come early next year, Tom's Convenience Store will be the newest gas station/quick-stop store in East Lampeter Township.

Shipley Stores Inc. of York plans to replace the small Mobil gas station along Old Philadelphia Pike, just south of Route 30, with a 4,000-square-foot convenience store and 12 Mobil gas pumps.

Demolition of the existing store will begin in November, Shipley vice president Bret Hoffmaster said. The new building is expected to open during the first quarter of 2000.

The Mobil station already does a brisk business because of its proximity to High Steel and Greenfield, Hoffmaster said. He believes the new store's breakfast and lunch items will be an attractive convenience for those customers and others.

The store's trademark sandwich is the Boss Hog, a southern-style pork barbecue sandwich, Hoffmaster said. Customers can also buy a breakfast pizza or sandwich, pizza, subs, hot dogs and a variety of soups made on the premises.

When debit card purchases are made, shoppers will be able to get cash back just like they currently do at many grocery stores, Hoffmaster said.

East Lampeter supervisors gave final approval to Shipley's land development plans Monday night. As part of the approval, Shipley must place sidewalks along Old Philadelphia Pike and Glendale Drive.

Project coordinator Joseph Gurney of D.C. Gohn Associates had asked the supervisors to waive the sidewalk requirement because there are no other sidewalks nearby, but supervisors insisted sidewalks were necessary for public safety.

Shipley Stores operates about 22 other Tom's Convenience Stores in central Pennsylvania, Hoffmaster said. Although the company owns some gas stations in Lancaster County, the East Lampeter store will be its first large-scale Tom's Store in the county, he said. 

Shipley opened its new, 4,000 square foot Tom's store, which was dubbed "Tom's Old Philadelphia Pike," in June 2000. On August 21, 2005, a new Tom's Cafe was unveiled at both this location and the store on Harrisburg Pike. The new cafe included a seating area and touch-screen food ordering. The Harrisburg Pike store, however, lacked the seating area. I've also included that article in its entirety:

Grub on the Web

Tom's convenience stores have begun accepting food orders on the Internet.

Customers can place their order on www.tomsonline.com and then stop by Tom's Cafe to pick up their prepared food. The cafes are always open.

The grand unveiling of the new Tom's Cafe service is Thursday at the two Lancaster-area locations - 1954 Old Philadelphia Pike and 1136 Harrisburg Ave. - from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Around 2012, Sunoco purchased around 14 Tom's convenience stores and rebranded them to their own A-Plus Convenience Stores. This included the Tom's on Old Philadelphia Pike.

Above are two Google Streetview captures of Tom's #11. The first, from July 2011, displays the store before the rebranding to Sunoco. The second, from November 2017, shows it after.

Sunoco #40451H continued to operate until 2021, when 7-Eleven purchased the location, making it the first in the greater Lancaster area. However, as of March 2022, it still bears the Sunoco and A-Plus branding. It's actually quite strange shopping there. The employees wear A-Plus shirts with 7-Eleven badges. The gas pumps are branded Sunoco, although feature 7-Eleven branding. One other interesting thing is that the registers are still from Sunoco.

The far left receipt is from the Sunoco/7-Eleven on Old Philadelphia Pike. The Middle is from a ground-up 7-Eleven in Frederick, Maryland; and the last one is from a ground-up Sunoco on Marietta Avenue. The First and third receipts are clearly using the same register software.

The plastic bags used at checkout are standard A-Plus bags.

And now that we're coming to the conclusion of this post, it's finally time for me to share my photos of 7-Eleven #40451.

The full store and gas pump canopy. Note how everything (minus the signage) is original to Tom's

The gas pump canopy. It's hard to see in the picture, but the advertisements are for 7-Eleven and not Sunoco.

If you want to help me out, by downloading the 7-Eleven app and using my referral code, y29ovu, I (and you) get 1,000 7Rewards points.

Thank you for reading

-RF