Working in his family”™s gas stations and convenience stores while growing up in Westchester is the experience that inspired Adam Musa to launch his Fuelco and FoodSmart ventures.
“When I was in high school, I was working in the convenience store business,” he said. “My family has a bunch of convenience stores, so I grew up working day to day in the stores, and just seeing how other people operate their stores across Westchester. A big problem, I found, was that being in the store all day, you kind of get used to making an eating habit out of what you have available to you, of which there were not really any healthy alternatives.”
Musa was less than satisfied with the options available.
“Spending a day in the store, it”™s crazy that these are neighborhood stores encouraging really unhealthy foods,” he said. “If you walk into a convenience store now, all you can really get is a protein bar that”™s healthy ”” besides that, everything else is unhealthy. So I wanted to change that.”
He began to test the waters in Miami, where he studied business after graduating from Harrison High School in 2017. There, he opened up a gas station and car wash service and used the station to test out the appeal of healthy alternatives to the highly processed snacks typically found in convenience stores, offering options such as kale chips and seaweed snacks.
He found that not only was the idea viable, but the healthy snacks actually ended up selling better, and he was able to sell them at a higher profit margin, too.
Simultaneously, he began to develop the FoodSmart brand in New York, where he worked for two or three years to develop the brand before launching his gas station, Fuelco, and attached convencience store, FoodSmart, on Virginia Road in Valhalla.
He chose the Valhalla location for its proximity to highways, residential areas, major health care centers such as Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children”™s Hospital and Westchester Community College.
He wanted to innovate the gas station aspect as well and created one with member-focused benefits, including an app that allows members to access gas at a reduced price along with contactless payment.
The most unique thing about Musa”™s Fuelco, perhaps, is that he isn”™t too interested in turning a profit on gas sales. Rather, he hopes to utilize as cheap of a price as he can offer to build more customer loyalty for his convenience store brand, which he is able to do as a result of being independently owned and not branded by any major gas company, which usually require their franchises to turn as much of a profit as possible, and force station owners to charge a premium for gas.
“The whole point is to get people to the store, build brand awareness,” Musa said. “And that”™s by giving the gas away practically and making store specials where we”™re losing money just to get people to the store. The more we expand, the more we can build that awareness.”
Musa hopes to create a new option with Fuelco for price-conscious gas consumers in Westchester, which has some of the highest gas prices in the country, while still offering what he claims is some of the cleanest, highest-quality gas available in the region.
“What makes us different from these other brands around Westchester, is that all these other companies make money off the gas,” he said. “If you look at other store brands, (they”™re) affiliated with a Mobil gas or a Shell gas or other gas company. That means that they have to make money off the gas to make Mobil or Shell happy, because they”™re under the old belief that you need that Mobil brand to get people to come pump gas with you. So they”™re limited in what they can do because they need to make money for Shell or Mobil for it to be worth it to brand them.
“Me, I started my own fuel brand, Fuelco, so I can charge as little for gas as I want. I want to change Westchester ”” we”™re normally associated with high gas prices, but if you look on GasBuddy, I”™m the lowest price around and that”™s because I have my own brand.”
Musa and his family also own several corporate-branded stations, so he knows from experience how different the experience of running one can be when station owners are beholden to a certain brand, versus the benefits that being independently owned and operated can offer ”” especially since it allows him to be more experimental, something other owners cannot or will not often do.
Musa knows that there is a real possibility that gas stations could soon be a thing of the past and said that unlike other gas stations, his business will survive because of its ability to offer healthy, high-quality food options that make the business valuable to the community on another scale.
He has also noticed that consumers are ready and willing to spend more if it means they are getting a more nutritious option.
“We sell far more chickpea puffs than we do Cheetos, and we sell far more seaweed snacks than we do Frito-Lays,” he said.
“The healthy snacks are outselling nonhealthy snacks. When was the last time you went and spent more than $10 on Snickers and Mr. Goodbars and Laffy Taffys? I”™ve never seen anybody do that. When you come to my store, you see chickpea puffs and snap pea crisps and cheese wisps, you spend $30 or $40 because, you”™re like ”˜Wow, I”™ve never seen any of this stuff,”™ and it all looks healthy, and you don”™t feel guilty about it.”
The newest Fuelco and FoodSmart store opened at 651 Bronx River Road in Yonkers on Aug. 24, and Musa voiced that the company intends to expand to Tarrytown and Ardsley soon, in addition to new stations being planned for Putnam, Dutchess and Fairfield counties. He hopes that all villages in the area will have Fuelco and Foodsmart as a nearby option in the years to come.
