Road Runner Opening Aug. 31

Road Runner is coming back to Fayetteville.

Coulson Oil Co., which has owned the property for many years, recently confirmed it with three banners hanging outside the Valero location at 357 N. College Ave., announcing a Road Runner convenience store is coming soon.

We hear the renovated store will have a soft opening Aug. 29-30, with the official grand opening Aug. 31.

Features of the new store will include a Rudy’s Grill Restaurant, which will offer fried chicken, hamburgers, sandwiches and salads and a coffee bar.

The location will also be a “bike friendly” convenience store, with bike racks and a self-repair bicycle care and repair station.

We’re also told the store will be the official and exclusive convenience store partner with the University of Arkansas’ Razorbucks program, the school’s online debit card account used by students.
It will be the only Road Runner store in Northwest Arkansas. Other locations are in Little Rock, Fort Smith, Conway, Heber Springs, Hot Springs and Texarkana.

Valero gas pumps are still operable at the location while the building is being renovated, led by Milestone Construction Co.

The site, originally built in 1972, was a Road Runner location many years ago — we’re guessing late 1980s, early 1990s — before later becoming a Total and other brands.

According to roadrunnerstores.com, the Road Runner brand was reborn in 2003 with two new “ultra-modern” convenience stores in the Texarkana area. In February 2012, Coulson Oil purchased those two stores, along with geographical rights to the Road Runner trademark. Coulson Oil soon opened the store in Conway with promises to open more.

The Road Runner store brand was conceived in Texas in 1969 by Truman Arnold Companies. In 1989, Truman Arnold sold 125 Road Runner stores in seven states to Total Petroleum.