Rodney Jones

Tom Thumb provides a clean safe place for fueling your vehicle along with many convenience and fill-in items. We offer a large variety of food, snacks, and beverages both hot and cold, and the only place in the Panhandle of Florida to purchase Turkey Hill Tea and Ice Cream. W.C. Jones established Walton Grocery Company in 1953. His goal was to sell quality products and provide excellent convenient service. His first supermarket was located in De Funiak Springs, Florida. From the traditional supermarket, he began to experiment with the convenience store concept. He opened his first convenience store in Crestview, Florida. Rapid growth followed as the company moved into the beach areas along the Florida Gulf Coast and into the small rural towns. The addition of gasoline to the convenience store scene developed rapidly and gasoline became an integral part of the store. Over time, the company added fried chicken delis to multiple locations. In 1979, W.C. merged his company with two other family-owned companies to what we now know as Tom Thumb Food Stores. Rodney Jones, son of W.C. Jones, was named President of the combined companies. Today Tom Thumb Food Stores operates over 113 stores in the panhandle of Florida and southern Alabama and is owned by EG Group and operated by EG America. Tom Thumb and EG America also operate several other U.S. based subsidiary companies, including Cumberland Farms, Certified Oil, Fastrac, Kwik Shop, Loaf N Jug, Quik Stop, Turkey Hill, and Minit Mart. EG America’s parent company is EG Group, located in Blackburn, England. EG Group is the world’s leading independent fuel station and convenience retailer, with a diversified portfolio of sites across eight countries in Europe and North America. The business receives regular recognition for innovation and investment; Zuber Issa and Mohsin Issa, Founders and co-CEOs of EG Group, were jointly named the 2016 NACS Insight European Convenience Industry Leader of the Year.