One Stop Corner owners open second customer-oriented convenience store in Lebanon

A bit over two years ago, siblings Joey, 22, and Amanda, 26, Issis opened One Stop Corner convenience store in the 1000 block of Church Street with the goal of creating a business that meant something to the community.

During Lebanon Daily News' last visit, the duo were grateful to be able to provide the community with a store within walking distance to many where they can pick up everyday necessities like bread and milk, where their children could come to get snacks, a place where the employees knew the names of their regular customers.

Since opening their first store in 2021 after buying the building in 2019, they've found tremendous success in their mission, despite it taking time to get their name out there initially.

"We're doing good. It keeps constantly picking up, we're doing amazing over there," Joey said. "It's a blessing to us and our family and we just continue to support the community and they give back to us. That's really what our end goal is and it just keeps going in a circle."

On Sunday, May 5, the Issis' opened up their second location in Lebanon on the corner of 9th and Cumberland Streets, a project that the two have been working on since they purchased the building in 2021.

One Stop Corner, located at 908 Cumberland St., is open Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The building was formerly a barbershop that suffered a fire and explosion caused by a gas leak in 2021.

Joey explained that the property was in better condition than it first appeared, but converting the layout from a barbershop to a convenience store in addition to getting the proper inspections and permits was no simple task.

"We had to convert it completely, we needed to add counters, equipment, so it was like a completely different ballgame," he said. "We kind of had to start over from scratch essentially, just to bring it back to what we wanted, because it wasn't even something similar to the layout that we needed."

In both cases of their One Stop Corner stores, the Issis' have had a vision where they believe nobody else did, turning buildings unused and in poor condition into one-stop shops within walking distance for many.

Their new location is slightly smaller than their Church Street location, they said, and what they stock at the store will develop to requests and needs of the neighborhood as time goes on.

Filling the needs of the community, stocking the foods and items that they want, is one of the primary objectives of their business.

"Anyone can open a convenience store and bring all the products," said Amanda, "I feel like at the end of the day that's not what separates us from any other store in lebanon, I feel like it's the connections that we have and that we're doing it for our customers."

For now, though, they offer the basics at the Cumberland Street store, including bread, milk and meats along with a variety of snacks, sodas and tobacco/vape products.

Beyond stocking those items that the community requests, Amanda said that they want the community to know that they're there to support them and uplift Lebanon City's reputation. Children, for example, they often see come into their store, and want to encourage them to do the right thing, understanding that shoplifting is an occasional fact of life.

"Our goal isn't to get them in trouble and put them in jail at that young of an age, but the complete opposite. We want to teach them, we want to show them that people do care about your future and we don't want you to be those kids who are growing up and giving Lebanon a bad reputation."

Currently, One Stop Corner has five employees between its two stores, but take seriously the position that they and their family hold as the owners of the business, always trying to be around and available to make those connections with their customers.

Because of their goals of making a meaningful and lasting impact on the neighborhoods they currently serve, they're unsure as to when or where to they might expand next their business to a third store. One Stop Corner abbreviated to OSC also stands for One Step Closer, said Amanda, closer to their ultimate goal of making those impacts.

"We don't want to just stop at two locations and be like, oh we hit two neighborhoods, they got what they want, we're gonna stop here, because we definitely want to take our vision to the entire City of Lebanon," Amanda said.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on X @djlarlham.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: One Stop Corner owners open second customer-oriented convenience store in Lebanon