SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new drive-thru convenience store opened its doors Friday in Sacramento.
Customers only have to look at a menu and pull into Fire Stop, located at 4907 Auburn Blvd., for a variety of snacks and drinks, according to co-owner Simone Nash. They cannot go inside.
“It’s a new concept, so I know a lot of people are confused,” Nash said.
Sam Perez, Nash’s co-owner, is from Ohio where he said drive-thru convenience stores are a staple.
Perez said they plan to have Fire Stop be the first of a chain of drive-thru convenience stores he and Nash open on the West Coast.
“This is definitely the first of many,” Perez said.
Nash said she and Perez moved to Ohio for a brief time after 2019, and she saw the success of the drive-thru business model, which inspired her to take it to her hometown of Sacramento.
“When we found this space, and I realized it was in the community I grew up in, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try and build a business there and create more opportunity for the area that I’m from,” she said.
She said customers visited the store more often in the evening since opening Friday and thinks it's because they want to swing by and grab something quick on the way home from work. The store’s top-selling item so far has been energy drinks, she said.
“That grab-and-go mentality makes people want to get their energy on the go,” Nash said.
Fire Stop employs four people including its two owners, according to Nash. She said the store is working on obtaining licenses to sell tobacco and alcohol.
Nash said selling alcohol in a drive-thru setting is something that became regular during COVID, so she has no reservations to selling it to people in their cars through a window.
"I assume positive intent with everybody," she said. "I can only hope it’s not going to be a problem. When they're at regular liquor store, they’re getting it and going right back to their car anyway."
The store's license to sell tobacco should come by January's end, according to the owners. An alcohol license will come in two or three months, they said.
Fire Stop is open Monday through Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. It's open Sundays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
