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.

Most Stationstores are staffed with a Store Manager (SM or GM), two assistant store managers (ASM), shift leaders, sales associates, and food service specialists (FSS). 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). All employees help keep the stores cleaned and stocked, and all are responsible for handling customer transactions. FSS's typically work on weekdays, typically before, during, and after Holiday's hot food "Power Hours", but may sometimes be needed to run register. They are responsible for stocking hot foods, cold sandwiches, commissary cases, and any other Holiday-branded food and snacks while working.

Holiday owns two fresh food commissaries.

Holiday's corporate headquarters is located in Bloomington, Minnesota. 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, including the 24/7 help-desk that store employees may call to report issues and get any additional assistance they may need. In May 2020, nine Holiday Stationstores locations were damaged by looting and rioting during the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, with two locations being destroyed by arson.[4][5][6] The Holiday Stationstores at East 36th Street and Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis was the location of the December 30, 2020, police killing of Dolal Idd during a law enforcement sting operation.[7]

• Unofficial timeline