A mini-mart pioneer, who served the suburbs

Roy Riedel's Li'l General Food Stores were prototypes for the convenience store industry.

By JAY CRIDLIN
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 15, 2002

The next time you walk into a 7-Eleven or Conoco, stop and say a quick thanks to Roy Riedel.

Mr. Riedel was a pioneer in the convenience store industry, directing some of the country's first mini-marts after World War II. His 250 Li'l General Food Stores dotted the East Coast during the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr. Riedel died at his South Tampa home Nov. 2 after a battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 81.

"He really was one of the finest and most decent human beings I've ever known," said his nephew, Harley Riedel Jr. "I've never heard him speak poorly of another person."

The food business was nothing new to Mr. Riedel, whose grandfather had a successful dairy farm in Minnesota.

Mr. Riedel moved to Exeter, N.H., where he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1940 and was a member of the school's undefeated wrestling team.

He went back to Minnesota for college, but after two years volunteered for the Army Air Corps and served in World War II.

Mr. Riedel had no flying experience before the war, but he was quickly called into a dangerous mission: flying "The Hump," a route over the Himalayas the Army used to deliver goods and supplies from India to China. For his service, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

"He was flying the big planes, sometimes without any fighter escort," Riedel Jr. said. "Very dangerous. You're flying over the Himalayas. There's a lot of people that didn't make it back."

Around 1950, Mr. Riedel moved to Florida to be closer to his brother, Harley Sr., who suffered from polio. The two went into business together, buying the Lang's Ice Cream chain and then several small stores, including a few in Tampa.

The first convenience store on record appeared in Dallas in 1927, but the industry didn't really take off until after the war, when families began buying automobiles and moving to the suburbs. Demand exploded for swift, convenient service.

Mr. Riedel expanded his Li'l General Food Stores business to 250 stores through a business philosophy that focused on quality and fast service.

"It was sort of catering to the evolving American impatience about standing in line," Riedel Jr. said. "You could go and shop quickly and keep the prices so they weren't significantly higher than in the supermarkets."

Mr. Riedel eventually sold his stores and returned to the dairy business in Minnesota and Iowa. Again, he was successful enough to be bought out by a larger corporation, Land O'Lakes Creamery.

In the late 1970s, he retired and moved to Raleigh, N.C., to care for his ailing mother. Family, said his nephew, was always important to him.

"He was our family ambassador," Riedel Jr. said. "He'd maintain a little bit of continuity between cousins that we had rarely seen. He'd keep everyone up to date on what every branch of the family was doing."

He spent many hours at his brother's home on Davis Islands playing chess. In the early 1980s, he picked up a new hobby that took his family completely by surprise: windsurfing.

"He was the oldest one in the first windsurfing championship in Florida," Riedel Jr. said. "He didn't win, but in his early 60s, he was an excellent windsurfer."

Mr. Riedel owned a condominium in Clearwater for many years, then moved back to Tampa a few years ago. He was a member of Bayside Community Church.

"He was a very decent, kind, compassionate, generous person that succeeded in everything he did," Riedel Jr. said.

Mr. Riedel was preceded in death by his brother, Harley Riedel Sr. His survivors include his sister, Lois R. Martin of Raleigh, N.C.; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

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