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American Business Brokers & Advisors Founder & President MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS BUSINESS VALUATIONS
JULY 2026
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What We Really Do for a Living
How often have you been asked by someone what kind of business are you in? If you own a chain of pizza restaurants, do you tell them you are a pizza maker or do you just say you are in the restaurant business? The same holds true if you are in the convenience store business. Do you tell them you sell cigarettes, sodas, and similar stuff for a living, or do you say you are in the oil business because you sell gasoline, or maybe you say you are in the convenience store business? The truth of the matter is that you are not in the business of making pizzas or selling sodas and cigarettes or gasoline. The correct answer would be that you and I are in the business of solving problems, which, in return, creates value for the people we serve from the industries we work in. The individual who orders a pizza has a problem; they're hungry, and they decided to come to your restaurant. The same thing applies to a convenience store. The individual who visits the convenience store has a problem whereby they need gasoline for their vehicle or something to eat or drink, but the basis for all of this is that they have a problem, and you just happen to have what they want to solve their problem. When I get asked what I do for a living in my business of American Business Brokers & Advisors, I could say I sell gas stations for a living, but that would be incorrect. Instead, I say I work with privately owned business owners who are in the petroleum industry and have decided to step away from their business because they don’t have a succession plan, which is closer to the truth.
But I am really in the business of solving problems and creating value. Let me give you a few examples of what I am talking about. When I first met Mark, he owned nine convenience stores. He had a good business and had no interest in selling his stores. We talked for two years, and life was good for him and so was his business, until he built a new store. He spent a lot of money and time to build the store, and six months after he built the store, a very strong competitor built a new store down the street and took 40% of Mark’s business from his new store. Then, six months later, the same competitor built a store in two of the towns Mark had stores in. Overall, in a matter of 12 months, Mark’s business of nine stores had been impacted with a 25% loss in profits. Mark had a problem. I helped Mark by selling his stores for a very good price and solved his problem before more of Mark’s stores were impacted by additional competition.
years we knew each other, I had helped him sell off underperforming stores and we had become friends. Then one day, Kevin mentioned to me that since he had inherited the convenience store business from his family, he also had inherited the majority of the employees who had worked for his father, and now those employees were aging out and were to the point they were getting ready to retire. Kevin didn’t know where he would find qualified people to replace his employees. Kevin had a problem because he knew he would be losing experienced employees soon, which would impact his business, and he could not in good conscience hire new employees knowing he would be selling the business soon and retiring himself. In this situation, we helped Kevin solve his problem by creating an exit plan for Kevin to sell the stores and a bonus for the long-term employees who were near retirement. John and Sue were brother and sister who had taken over the business from their father and had eight very nice and well- run convenience stores. They reached out to me and asked me if I could help them to determine what their stores would be worth in the marketplace. While I was in the process of doing the market valuation, the subject came up about technology and staying competitive in the marketplace. They shared with me that they didn’t have a loyalty program, and even though the stores were very profitable, they could see the writing on the wall that in the near future, they were going to have to spend a lot of money and Continued on Page 2 ...
Kevin was a third-generation owner with a total of 32 convenience stores. Over the
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You Can Never Say Too Many Thank-Yous
Do you say thank you when someone has helped you or done something nice for you? Back in the mid 1980s, when I had decided I wanted to be in the fast-food business, I built an Arby’s restaurant from the ground up. It was a monumental task because the location I decided to build on was about 100 miles from where I lived, which made it more difficult than it should have been. But what I remember most about this experience was the trainer sent from Arby’s corporate to help train the employees and get the store open. He was a seasoned trainer and had worked all over the country and knew how to work with people on the highest level. He told me and the crew that you can never say too many pleases and thank yous. It was a lesson I never forgot. I don’t think you can ever say thank you enough. Whether it is to someone who opens a door for you or has given you service, or someone just doing their job, it feels good for both the person receiving and the person giving to say thank you. Over my years of selling convenience stores, I started asking my clients if they would be kind enough to write me a short testimonial saying they were happy with the job I had done for them in helping them to step away from the daily operations of their convenience stores and move to another chapter in their
life. On my website TerryMonroe.com , I have many testimonials from satisfied clients. But what I have not done was to say thank you to them in a public manner. The following is a partial list of the wonderful individuals who were kind enough to give me a testimonial and the opportunity to work with them. I want to say thank you to each one of them and how much I appreciate them. Greg and Pat Junghans – Shop Quik Stores Mike Owens – Freedom Oil Jeff Scully – Scully Oil John & Lisa Salden – DJ’s Mart
Terrill Tuten – Anderson Oil Company Bill Loeder – Loeder Oil Company Mike Meier – Meier Oil Company
Dave Golwitzer – Illco, Inc. Mike Frawley – Frawley Oil
Mark Frazer – 7-2-11 Food Stores Jay Thomas – One Stop Convenience John Logue – SAC Companies JD Dykstra & Don Draughon – Pops Mart Donna & Randy Wagner – LaFaive Oil Frank & Kay Lotter – Lotter Oil
Kathy Puegh – Johnson Oil Wayne Baker – Warrenton Oil Rick Marketti – MKM Oil
Brian Fisher – Free Enterprise, Inc. John Baltus – Baltus Oil Company
Rick & Ed Francois – Francois Oil Josh & Josi Severson – Severson Oil Todd Van Zeeland – Van Zeeland Oil Nick & Peter Lang – Blue Moose Jim Kemerling – Riiser Energy
Carol Horne – Marshall Convenience Stores Bob O'Connor – Jetz Convenience Stores Dennis McCarthy – Blarney Castle Larry & Christy Sharpe – Blythewood Oil John & Lisa Wortman – Jack Flash Stores Andrew & Tom Fleming – Fleming Oil Dwain Trowbridge – Bridge Stop Stores Melissa Wagner – Wagner Oil Wayne Compton – Jiffy Stop Stores Alan Meyers – Meyers Oil Tony Wied – Wied Oil Dan & Lori Pamperin – Titletown Oil Jerry McDaniels – McDaniels Trucking Bill Johnson – Lions Quick Marts, Inc. Linda Bianchi – Thoele, Inc.
Dirk Lenthe – Stamart Denny Knott – Ney Oil Daryl Becker – Beck Oil Monica Musich – Valley Dairy Becky Shotwell – Stop-N-Go Convenience Stores Greg Bultman – Quality State Oil Chuck Feeney – Feeney Oil
John Miller – Colonial Pantry Stores Jim & Pat Fash – Jiffy Mini Marts
–Terry Monroe
... continued from Cover time to stay competitive and keep the high sales they were enjoying. They had a problem. They could spend the time and money they needed to stay competitive or sell for a very high price today and take the money off the table rather than invest a lot of money and time and hope they get their money back sooner than later. We solved John and Sue’s problem by getting them more money for their stores than they thought possible without having to spend millions of dollars in hopes the stores would remain competitive. Mary and Jim were a happily married couple who built and operated 17 convenience stores. They were close with their employees, and they had quite a few family members who worked in the business, too. It was truly a family business. As it is in life, everything was good until one day, Jim got sick and eventually passed away. Since Mary had helped build the stores and was fully engaged in the running of the stores, she continued to operate the stores herself without Jim. Even though Mary knew the ins and outs of the business, it wasn’t the same without Jim and his expertise. Eventually, the long hours and stress of running the business and dealing with competitors building new stores in the same
towns they had stores in was too much for Mary. Mary had a problem. She knew if she did not continue to grow and build new stores, the business would falter and begin to die. I helped Mary and her family to structure a plan to divest all the stores and take care of the family members who had worked in the business. Basically, we are all in the problem-solving business and creating value regardless of what type of business we may be in. I hope you never have the same kind of problems like Mark, Kevin, John, Sue, and Mary had, but if you ever do have such a problem, you will know who to call and it won’t be Ghostbusters either. At American Business Brokers & Advisors we pride ourselves on being available to help business owners before there is a problem. I hope you have a fantastic Fourth of July and enjoy the 250th anniversary of the greatest country in the world we are fortunate enough to live in. –Terry Monroe
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SUDOKU (SOLUTION ON PG. 4) Take a Break!
While signing the Declaration of Independence was a serious and dangerous task, the men who signed it were full of quirks, petty rivalries, and outright weird habits. Here are seven of the most humorous things we know about the signers. Gag Order: The Continental Congress explicitly banned Benjamin Franklin from writing the Declaration of Independence. The other founders were terrified he would sneak a joke or a hidden pun into the official document. The Original "Air Bath": Franklin loved reading and writing in his home while completely naked. He called these his "air baths" and believed sitting by an open window in the nude kept him healthy. Text Speak: Franklin tried to reinvent the English alphabet. He wanted to get rid of letters like C, J, Q, W, X, and Y, and pushed for people to spell words like "night" as "nite." John Hancock’s Big Flex: John Hancock famously signed his name much larger than everyone else. While legend says he did it so "King George could read it without his spectacles," but historians think he just walked up first, had giant handwriting, and left zero room for anyone else. FUNNY & INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE MEN WHO SIGNED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The "Death Warrant" Roast: William Ellery of
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Rhode Island was famous for making fun of his colleagues. As people walked up to sign the document, which was technically an act of treason against the king, Ellery stood by the table just to watch their faces flinch. He used the scary moment to write funny poems mocking a coworker who was too terrified to sign it.
The Silent Author: Thomas Jefferson wrote the beautiful words of the Declaration, but he was a terribly awkward public speaker . John Adams joked that during all their time sitting together in Congress, he "never heard Jefferson utter three sentences together." The Terrible Tax Man: Samuel Adams is remembered as a fierce revolutionary leader, but his first job was a local tax collector. He was so bad at it that he constantly forgot, or simply refused, to collect money from citizens, making him incredibly popular with locals but terrible for the treasury. –Terry Monroe
BARBECUE BASEBALL
FIREWORKS ICE CREAM INDEPENDENCE PARK
RUBY SHADE STARGAZING VACATION
CYCLING FISHING
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Sudoku Solution
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What We Really Do for a Living
You Can Never Say Too Many Thank-Yous
Did You Know? Independence Day Edition
Take a Break
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Inside the Business Logic of a Retail Giant
Costco’s Smarter Growth Strategy Scaling Through Restraint
It’s logical to think that most businesses grow by adding. They add more products, more channels, or more convenience, and when they do it right, they add more customers. While many companies have followed this path, it’s not the only path to sustainable growth. Costco has found a different way, and that approach is part of what makes the retail giant so successful. At the end of 2025, Costco had over 81 million paid memberships and more than 900 stores worldwide. Yet for all its size and continued success, Costco is built around a surprisingly narrow business model. The company describes itself as a membership warehouse that keeps costs low and passes savings on to members. It also keeps a much tighter product mix than most retailers. While the average large supermarket carries around 30,000 active stock-keeping units, Costco says a typical warehouse stocks around 4,000. That smaller selection affects buying, storage, pricing, and the overall shopping experience.
Costco move inventory faster and avoid the drag of managing too many slow-selling products. For customers, the experience is simpler. Costco typically offers only one or two brands for most products, which cuts down on overthinking and comparison. That kind of restraint can look old-fashioned in a market always chasing more, but Costco has shown that doing less doesn’t mean falling behind. In many cases, it’s what makes the rest of the model work. Its membership plans are just as important. Costco doesn’t rely only on what happens in the checkout line. In fiscal year 2025, the company reported $5.3 billion in revenue from membership fees alone. That gives the business a steadier base to stand on and changes the pressure around each sale. Of course, most companies can’t copy that exact setup, but the broader point still holds. Repeat revenue gives you room to think longer term. Costco understands that a business doesn’t win by getting larger at any cost. It wins by growing in ways it can actually sustain.
A leaner product mix allows Costco to place larger orders for fewer items, giving the company more leverage with suppliers. It also helps
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