Steve Cornelius, Commonwealth Journal, Somerset, Ky.
6 min read
Jul. 18—In an old familiar location, Midland Farms opened their doors to their newest mega-convenience store on the corner of Pumphouse Road and east Highway 80 Bypass. Formerly the IGA store, the Pumphouse Road Midland Farms location was open for business on Tuesday afternoon with a large first-day turnout.
"We offer great variety, great convenience, friendly employees, and a clean atmosphere," stated Midland Farms District Manager Rich Bizer. "We feel that our stores draw customers in to purchase good food that is made fresh.
"We have super clean bathrooms," he added. "We have friendly people. We have a variety of fresh made hot foods. We have great fresh cold items. We have a variety of soft drinks, energy drinks, and good healthy drinks for growing kids. Overall, it's a clean environment in a safe area."
Like their Circle K and Oak Hill Midland Farms locations, Midland Farms Pumphouse is a convenience store paradise that offers a wide selection of products in a friendly, clean and inviting environment. Besides eight spacious gas pump stations, a couple extra biofuel pumps, and a car wash on the outside exterior, inside Midland Farms stores is an overwhelming amount of fresh food, snacks and tasty beverages.
"We have an assortment of fresh brewed 'bean to cup' coffee, like we have at our other Midland Farms locations," stated Midland Farms Pumphouse manager Miranda Cundiff. "We have the frozen coffees, the frozen drinks, and the normal fountain drinks. We have a deli with our hand-breaded chicken tenders and pizzas. We've got cheeseburgers, bacon cheeseburgers, and chicken sandwiches. We make our salads in house fresh every day.
"We have Amon's Bakery products coming in fresh every morning," she added. "We make our own fruit cups daily with the fruit we get locally. You can come in and get an eight-inch sub, which includes steak and cheese to the meatball subs to the Italian subs."
Bizer chimed in immediately to promote his favorite submarine sandwich.
"The Italian sub is my favorite," Bizer said with a smile. "We put it in the oven for three minutes to crisp up the bread and heat up the meat. Then we put on the lettuce and tomato.
"We actually had one of the ladies that works at Subway come in the other day and got one of our subs here," he explained. "She was like, 'Don't tell my boss, but I'm going start coming here.'"
As a matter of fact, everyone may start coming to the Midland Farms Pumphouse location, which is conveniently located right off the Ky. 80 Bypass en route to London or Interstate 75.
"We have the same breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus we have at the Oak Hill store," Cundiff stated. "We have a full breakfast with the biscuits and gravy, eggs, and everything. We do the same thing for lunch with a full menu as well."
Cundiff started her career at Midland Farms at the Circle K store until she became the manager of the Oak Hill Midland Farms location, and now takes over the Midland Farms Pumphouse location.
"We heard a lot of people use to eat here when it was the IGA store," Cundiff stated. "When the schools start back up with the sports teams and stuff like that, we should stay busy. We're pretty close to Pulaski County High School and Meece Middle School. We're pretty close to the parks and other locations. I'm excited to meet all the new people that will be coming to visit us here."
Bizer explained that Midland Farms, which is an associated businesses under the banner of entrepreneur Demetrios Haseotes' company Hemisphere Limited LLC, is much more that just a mega-convenience store. Midland Farms, as well as Hemisphere Limited LLC, is all about helping out the local community, as well as featuring local grown and produced products.
"Midland Farms is a Somerset-grown company with convenience stores," Bizer explained. "We started with Circle K and then we opened Midland Farms on Oak Hill. And now we have our Midland Farms on Pumphouse Road and Highway 80. By the end of the year, we'll have Midland Farms next to Bob Evans on South Highway 27.
"The concept is Somerset-grown convenience stores using all of the local conveyors that we can, all of the local distributors and contractors that we can, and we purchase all the local products that we possibly can," he stated. "We use mainly Kentucky-purchased products. We use Team Modern Distributors and we purchase from Amon's Bakery. We employ over 60 local employees between all of the community stores and the liquor store. With the other location opening up later this year, we should probably be over a 100 employees. So that's a good thing."
On top of buying from local distributors and business, Midland Farms helps out the local farmers and the local schools. Midland Farms uses local distributors of fuel, which is Continental Refining Company (CRC). Midland Farms has began setting up Spirit Pumps on each of their locations, which will earn money for each school's athletic programs.
"We're using the F20 biodiesel, which seems to be going over very well," Bizer stated. "It's the Ultra Burn that is produced by CRC, using soybeans purchased from local farmers. That helps the local farmers sell their product and reduces their cost of transportation by keeping them from having to transport over state lines."
As of now, Midland Farms has school spirit gas pumps for Southwestern High School and Somerset High School. With their two newest locations opening up, spirit pumps will be added for Pulaski County High School and Somerset Christian School. Bizer stated that each school could earn up to $3,000 per year from the spirit pumps.
"It's a big, round circle of life here in Somerset," Bizer stated. "We're going to continue to help the community. We appreciate the support that the local people have given us, so to give back to the community we have school spirit pumps at each location."
Midland Farms has also set up a loyalty program, where loyal customers can save extra money and earn discounts as they purchase products at their locations.
"Another way we try to help out the community is our 'Go and Grow Perks' loyalty program," Bizer stated. "Customers can go to the pumps, scan their loyalty card or punch in your loyalty number, and you get 3 cents off a gallon [of gas]. And while you're pumping gas, you're also getting credit discounts for store purchases and future gas purchases."
