Sheetz plans to open area's 8th store

The new store will employ 40 to 50 full- and part-time workers.
CANFIELD -- The Sheetz convenience store chain is making plans to open its eighth area store at the busy corner of Raccoon Road and Boardman-Canfield Road just east of state Route 11.
Steve Augustine, a spokesman for the Altoona, Pa.-based company, said demolition of a former service station and two houses, one on Raccoon and the other on Boardman-Canfield Road, will clear a two-acre site for the new building.
Demolition will be this week or next, he said, and construction is expected to take 14 to 15 weeks. The company plans to open the new 4,700-square-foot Canfield Township store in July.
Owner: B.T. Group, a Pennsylvania developer, will own the land and the building and will lease it to Sheetz.
Augustine said the store will employ 40 to 50 full- and part-time employees and will be open 24 hours daily.
About the chain: Founded 50 years ago, Sheetz has 272 stores in five states -- Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland. The chain has seven stores in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys and 13 in Ohio.
The company has been adding between 15 and 25 new stores per year, Augustine said.
Company officials charged with selecting new locations consider traffic count and population, and they generally choose "growth areas," he said.
The company Web site says the privately held family business plans to double its work force within the next five years.