Holiday Stationstores

In 1928, Arthur and Alfred Erickson, using borrowed money, opened a small general store in Centuria, Wisconsin. Like most small business owners, they wanted to provide "the best goods and finest possible customer service". They were soon able to open additional locations throughout both Wisconsin and Minnesota. With the additional revenue, the brothers got into the petroleum business. In 1939, under the "Holiday" name, they added fueling stations to their general stores. The stores were labeled by their family "Erickson" name, while the fueling side of their business was labeled as "Holiday". Soon, the company began to expand its operations to other states and offering a wide-variety of products.

Holiday Plus, Holiday Foods, and Holiday Express

In the 1960s, Holiday Companies expanded their business operations by constructing and operating full service discount stores and supermarkets. By the 1980s, with advanced competition from Walmart and Target, Holiday removed general merchandise from their stores and put in full sporting and outdoor goods departments (along with the supermarket). The name of these stores would be Holiday Plus. In the early 1990s, wanting to expand their grocery offerings, Holiday Companies separated their grocery and sporting good stores into two separate brands. The sporting good stores being branded as Holiday Sports, and the supermarkets as Holiday Foods. The Holiday Plus name went away. While Holiday Plus and Holiday Foods were in operation, Holiday's convenience stores were rebranded as Holiday Express. These express stores offered their petroleum and diesel products outside, and general merchandise along with basic groceries inside.

Interior of a Holiday gas station in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Gander Mountain

In 1996, after long bankruptcy negotiations with the Federal Bankruptcy Court, Gander Mountain, a large supplier of sporting and outdoor goods, filed a joint plan of reorganization under Chapter 11 Bankruptcy with Holiday Companies. Gander Mountain sold 12 of its 17 stores to Holiday and the existing Holiday Sports stores were rebranded to Gander Mountain. Soon after, Holiday Foods was sold off. After regaining financial and corporate stability, Gander Mountain went private with Holiday Companies being one of its two owners.

Holiday Plus logo

Holiday Companies as a whole employs over 7,000 employees. This number consists of employees working in stores, fresh food commissaries, distribution facilities, and offices. Holiday has been praised throughout the years by industry leaders for its low-cost, high profit business model. Holiday is most notably compared to Kwik Trip, Inc. Holiday, however, is able to offer the exact same products and offerings at a much lower cost and earn the company significantly higher profits than Kwik Trip allowing the company to evolve as a whole, rather than simply rapidly expanding and threatening the livelihood of many small business operators in its areas (Kwik Trip). Holiday offers a hot, fresh food, high quality fresh ground hot and iced coffee, cappuccino, hot and iced tea, fresh bakery, a breadth of cold fountain beverages (particularly through Couche-Tard's Polar Pop program), frozen carbonated beverages, F'Real milkshakes and smoothies, fresh cookies prepared on site, fresh doughnuts, muffins, packaged bakery, candy, chips and other salty snacks, groceries, fresh meats and cheeses, a massive selection of cooler beverage products, frozen foods, health and beauty products, pet care products, other sundries, tobacco and lottery products, and many other offerings.

Most Stationstores are staffed with a General Manager (GM), two assistant managers (ASM), shift leaders, sales associates, and food service specialists. General managers are responsible for store operations as a whole by tending to store financials and merchandising, hiring (however this duty may often fall into the hands of the ASM), customer satisfaction, food safety, quality assurance, and general maintenance. Assistant store managers are generally responsible to supervising shift leaders and sales associates. ASM's will tend to General Manager duties when the GM is not on site (typically on weekends or on vacation days). Shift leaders and sales associates are typically responsible for handling customer transactions, and standard stocking/ cleaning duties. Food service specialists typically work during a stores "peak" hours where food service offerings need to have full attention.

Holiday own's two fresh food commissaries. These commissaries produce "Holiday Pantry" line of fresh breakfast and lunch sandwiches, burritos, hot snacks, hard boiled eggs, and muffins. The commissaries also produce the "Fresh Seasons" line of fresh fruit, vegetables, salads, pastas, cold submarine sandwiches, yogurt, and many more offerings.

Holiday's corporate headquarters is located in Bloomington, MN. It is the company's central operations hub. Within, various departments work together to provide all necessary tools to make day-to-day operations at the store level a success. The 24/7 help-desk that store employees may call to report issues and get any additional assistance they may need.

District Managers (DM) will oversee multiple stores in a given area (typically less than 15). DM's are the direct supervisors of GM's and conduct monthly internal audits. They are also responsible for conducting quality assurance inspections, food service inspections, and communicating company "happenings" to GM's who will then reciprocate it to store employees.

A Regional Director of Operations (RDO) oversees many different districts in a given region. As a result, they are the direct supervisors of DM's. An RDO's primary duties are quality management for the many stores they oversee.

• Official website
• Unofficial timeline