One star... don't do many of these. To be fair, it's not just this convenience store, it's this entire corner and the mini strip mall behind it that's all a part of one big hot mess on this end of town. Don't believe me? Read what the local newspaper wrote a few years ago. Google "Life and death at a Lawrence strip mall: At 19th and Haskell, hope and heartbreak are bought in balance." It's everything you want to know about stopping here. Little has changed the past five years.
Pretty much everything what was true then is now. Including the infamous "Happy Feet Spa" where it's said anything goes according to that article. Just what I read, you couldn't pay me to approach the front door. A repeating cycle of Hail Mary businesses locate here. Some move on. Some gain infamy for all the wrong reasons. Remember the knife and gun fights at Playerz Lounge, right next door to the "Center for Change," a kind of network for people with drug and alcohol problems? Now add an out of business liquor store, various CBD hawkers that move in an out, second-hand stores, etc. I bring these up to point at that this seems to be this stores customers base.
OK, enough about the corner itself. Seems this store which skews far more heavily into cigarettes, vape supplies, lottery tickets, more lottery tickets, even more lottery tickets, sugary drinks (all convenience stores do this to be fair), lots of other personal entertainment items many C-Stores don't carry, and tons of other things you have to request that are behind a counter. Too many to mention. The rest of the store has a free-for-all take on what most consider to be merchandising. To get an idea, the QuickTrip just 3 blocks to the South, night and day. No similarity whatsoever. This from a guy that as a rule enjoys sketchy businesses. Not here.
Hard to mess with gas but this is not a place I'll stop even though it's about the closest to my house. The pumps are Ok, though typically dirty, unmaintained wiper fluid, etc, it's the clientele hanging out and folks parked in the lot that keep me away. An awful lot of things that scream "drive on by, there's better about 600 yards South."
If you do go inside, don't expect anyone to greet you. It's all part of the experience. In a town that's really small enough that you can know about every single C-Store, this one pretty much takes the cake for being one to drive on by. read more