Get to Know NATSO Member Isaiah Britt of Donna’s Truck Stop

Article created for the August digital issue of  

Isaiah Britt’s job title at Donna’s Truck Stop is merchandising manager, but he is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades at the Marysville, Washington, location.

“I also am the stock maintenance supervisor. I run the tills. I do fuel inspections, and I have an underground storage tank license, so I service the dispensers once a month. I also run security,” he said.

While he enjoys the work, the best part of being involved in the family business is the opportunity to work with, learn from and strengthen his relationships with his step-grandfather and stepdad.

“I’ve gotten so much more admiration and respect for my Grandpa Bill than I ever would have though,” Britt said. “I have a good meeting with him in the morning. There is about an hour overlap where we’re both in, and I really cherish those conversations.”

Britt started at the location in 2012 when he was 15 years old doing stock and maintenance. “On my first day, my stepdad and boss pulled me aside and said, ‘You’re going to be the lowest paid employee here, but I expect you to work the hardest.’ At the time it felt like a slap to the face, but in retrospect I’ve realized it taught me a strong work ethic which I carried with me in future jobs,” he said.

When Britt was 18, he became a cashier, then left to go to school on sports and academic scholarships. While a student, he worked as a lifeguard, but carried the lessons he learned at the truckstop with him. “I was a lifeguard. Then I was head guard. Then running a whole pool operation for my college,” he said. “It is the drive he instilled in me that day to take pride in what you do.”

In March 2020, Britt graduated. “Since COVID had just started nowhere was hiring, I was asked to come back and help modernize Donna’s, I’ve been doing that ever since,” Britt said.

He added that he has worked hard to get where he is today. “I didn’t just get handed this, and especially since it is my stepfamily, I want to prove that I provide value to the store. I want to be beneficial and help,” he said.  

Focusing on Data
As part of his work at Donna’s, Britt has focused on data and created a series of “product tracker” spreadsheets separate from the company’s back office/POS system to help keep track of everything coming in and out of the cooler.

“In the ‘product tracker,’ I have every product that is in our cooler with its UPC, door number, distributor and cost. After we get an order, I will take the invoices and manually enter them into the product tracker,” Britt explained. “If we have something new or something that increases in price, I will highlight the item in pink to help me know when the item originally came in/ changed in price.”

Britt also tracks the weekly case count and compares it year-over-year to help predict order needs. “I’ve also used the product tracker to catch mistakes in orders. For instance, this week my head maintenance guy checked my Coke order in. I noticed when I was putting part of the order away, I had received two cases of “Monster Java Loco Moco,” which was weird since I told my rep not to order that item since I already had two cases in my backstock.”

When Britt entered the invoice, he saw that the invoice had two cases of “Monster Java Mean Bean,” which he had asked for but did not receive. “The Loco Moco had been mistaken for the Mean Bean and when my Coke rep comes in next week, I’ll be able explain the situation, return the mistaken product, get credit for it, and know that I didn’t go through two cases of Mean Bean in a week and so I may not need extra cases like if I had which would be shown on the reps ordering system,” he said.

While the process may seem tedious, Britt said it is a powerful tool. “I look over the invoices multiple times with this process, and it helps me be confident and precise with my orders so I can best manage my product flow and continue to offer the product that my customers want/need,” he said.

Increasing New Technology
Donna’s has also made several investments in new technology. “Recently, we upgraded our credit card readers to accept Tap to Pay and Apple Pay at the readers. Before the upgrade if a customer was paying with “Tap to Pay/Apple Pay,” the cashier and customer had to go off to the side and use a separate terminal to process the transaction which wasted time, created confusion and complications,” Britt said.

The location is also breaking ground on new electric vehicle chargers. “We’re very excited to begin to offer electric charging and hope that we can get more people to stop by the store,” Britt said. “We’re located right off the major freeway between Seattle and the Canadian border, and we’ll be able to better serve travelers between the two who drive EV vehicles.” 

Donna’s has added video boards for menu items and current promotions. “This helps give the store a more modern feel and allows us to make quick adjustments to menu items as the cost of goods drastically increases,” Britt said.

About Donna’s
Donna’s is located right off of I-5 and has a large following of regular customers, including blue collar workers and delivery drivers—both local and out of state. “I hear all the time from the truckers that come through that ‘they’ve been coming here for twenty years’ whenever they’re making trips to or from Canada,” Britt said, adding that the clientele is made up of about 65 percent regular daily customers, 25 percent long haul truckers and 10 percent new customers, Britt said.
 

// This article was created for Stop Watch magazine, the magazine of the NATSO Foundation. The NATSO Foundation is the research, education and public outreach subsidiary of NATSO, Inc. The NATSO Foundation provides programs and products to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the traveling public's needs through improved operational performance and business planning. Visit www.natsofoundation.org for more information. (Donate to the NATSO Foundation here.)