A BP gas station and convenience store run by a franchisee with big plans opened Monday afternoon at the corner of Jericho Turnpike and Park Avenue.
Tony Toppa, the BP franchisee, plans to attract customers to the 24-hour-a-day operation by offering free air and free vacuuming for vehicles.
And he has even more ideas for the store, referring to the 2,500-square-foot store as “The Whole Foods of convenient stores.” Toppa, with his brother Omar and father Khalid, said the store will also offer European foods, gluten-free items, fresh produce, frozen milkshakes and craft beers. He also said the store will be the cheapest of convenient stores in the area.
He and his brother previously owned an organic foods business before branching out to gas stations a few years. This station is Toppa’s first in Huntington. Toppa said he’d hired about nine employees.
The site was previously occupied by a Mobil station that shut down abruptly in May 2013, leaving a 4.1-mile stretch of Park Avenue from East Jericho Turnpike to Main Street without a place to buy gas.