Casey's General Store

I'm just going to level with you. I've been all over the United States since I started this whole YouTube thing. And the Midwest does not have a lot to brag about, but our gas station game is on point and the rest of Today, we're talking about Casey's General Store, the most American pizza place in the world, and it's masquerading as a gas station. If you don't live in the Midwest, you've probably never even heard of Casey's because they only operate in 17 states. But despite only operating in 17 states to show how dominant they are in their region, they are the third biggest convenience store chain in the country behind 7-Eleven and Circle K. And while they're technically not considered a pizza place, they have better pizza than any other chain pizza place in the United States. Yes, it's not just good gas station pizza. No, it's just good pizza. Look at me. I'm a 260 pound white guy that worked construction for a decade. I know good pizza. I am a pizza slut. I promise you the pizza is delicious. And you don't just have to take my word for it. I can prove it mathematically. If you were to compare the top pizza chains in the United States and see which one made the most money by selling just pizzas, Casey's would be tied for fifth with Papa Murphy's. Last year, they sold 28 million pizzas and 70 million individual slices. And again, they only operate in 17 states with 2600 locations. That's And Casey's was able to achieve this market dominance with a brilliant business strategy that we're going to get into right after work from our sponsor. This video is brought to you by World of Warships, a massive free online game that's available pretty much everywhere, whether it's Windows, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, where you get to play as a warship inside of a massive World War Two style naval engagement. And the best part is these aren't just a bunch of random warships that they came up with. 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You're unfortunate enough to be driving through the vast cornfield ocean that is the Midwest of the United States. And the only thing that breaks up this ocean of corn is the occasional soybean field, maybe a hog confinement, or one of the thousands of tiny little towns that have a population of If you blink, you're going to miss them. Pretty much all of these towns are the exact same thing. There's only four businesses in these towns. Okay, there's a post office, a dive bar, a dollar general, and a gas station. And nine times out of 10, that gas station is a Casey's. And I'm going to tell you right now, that is one of, if not the best gas stations on the planet, the only company that comes close is Quickstar, which is their main competitor inside of the Midwest. Okay, all the other regions in the United States, B Oh yeah, well, Texas has Buckeys, and Buckeys is the biggest best gas station ever because Texas, B Okay, look at me. Look at me. Buckeys is cool. I Buckeys has a cool business model. I'll do a video on that one day. The Buckeys are on a gas station. Buckeys is what happens when a Six Flags fucks a Walmart, and then they have a massive parking lot that they threw some gas p That is a tourist attraction, not a convenience store. There's nothing convenient about Buckeys. Okay, you got a park and a 1000 spot parking lot, walk a quarter mile just to get into the store. That's the size of a fucking department store, just to find the food you want. I'm not looking to do that as a construction worker trying to get to work. Okay, I want to walk 12 steps in, grab food, grab an energy drink and a coffee, walk the fuck out and go to work. I'm surprised Buckeys doesn'take your picture and then try to sell it to you on the way out They basically have a fucking gift shop inside that gas station. Hey, stop it! I'm sorry, I'm getting off track. Our story begins in 1959 when Donald Lamberti, the founder of Casey's, took over his father's full-service gas station in Des Moines, Iowa. Now, remember, this is the 1950s, so when I say full-service gas station, I mean they sold gas and then they have That's how things were back in the day and eventually somewhere over the course of the next nine years, he decides, I'm gonna get rid of the auto shop. I'm gonna turn the auto shop into a convenience store. I'm gonna start making more money off of selling candy bars and drinks and food and shit and it's outrageously successful. And then one day his buddy, Casey Fisher, the guy that comes by to fill up the gas tanks for his gas p There's another full-service gas station that'struggling. You should take them over, turn them into a convenience store too and do exactly what you did right here in Des Moines. It would probably go just as well. Now, Des Moines is the capital. It's the big city. In theory, it should be easier to have a successful business there just because of greater population density. Boone, Iowa is a tiny town that's got about 12,000 people, so he's concerned that a convenience store isn't going to be able to make it there, but there's only one way to find out. So he goes there, he takes over this gas station. It's In a wild turn of events that literally nobody could have seen coming, people that live in small towns also Holy shit, who would have thunk it? So while, yes, this small town does have less people, which means less potential business, he also has literally no competition, so he just mops up. So he ends up naming that gas station Casey's after the guy that gave him the idea, and that becomes his new strategy for the business. He's not going to try to go into the big metropolitan area and slug it out with all the big hitters and make a name for himself. No, he's just going to go around to all these little tiny po-dunk towns, and he actually focuses on towns that have a population of 5,000 or less. And as time goes by, he's just opening up new gas stations left and right in all these little po-dunk towns. And then in 1984, one of these tiny little towns only had two businesses. They had a Casey's and they had a local pizza place, and that local pizza place went out of business. So the manager of that Casey's was