4 Things Allsup’s Does in New Mexico That Other Gas Stations Never Bother With

Allsup’s sold more than 24 million fried burritos in 2025, by the company’s count.

That’s about 65,700 a day, systemwide.

New Mexico built a whole category of gas station food around one accident in a Clovis fryer in 1974.

These are the things Allsup’s does in New Mexico that other gas stations never bother with.

1. A Holiday for the Burrito

Allsup’s turned September 7 into a company holiday built around one menu item.

Every convenience chain marks National Burrito Day each April, Allsup’s included.

Allsup’s wanted a holiday no competitor could share, so it created one.

In 2024, the chain declared September 7 “World Famous Allsup’s Burrito Day,” timed to the burrito’s 50th anniversary.

The date wasn’t random.

Founder Lonnie Allsup was born September 7, 1933, the same calendar date an employee accidentally invented the fried burrito 41 years later.

Few chains bother.

Yesway, the company that owns Allsup’s, billed the day as the start of a yearly tradition rather than a one-time stunt.

That kind of showmanship fits a state whose fair spends two weeks frying just about everything, this year running through September 20 in Albuquerque.

2. The In-House Burrito Fry

Allsup’s has fried its burrito in-store since September 7, 1974.

An employee at the Clovis store dropped a batch of baked burritos into the store’s doughnut fryer that day to save a slow shift.

It happened to be founder Lonnie Allsup’s birthday.

The gamble worked.

Customers cleaned the store out within the hour, and the fried version never left the menu.

Some convenience chains fry fresh food somewhere in their stores now.

Few can point to fifty years of frying the same recipe in-house at every single location.

Allsup’s fries the burrito in-store rather than shipping in a pre-made one.

The company says it sold more than 24 million of them in 2025.

That’s not a typo.

3. The Fried Chimichanga, Too

Allsup’s doesn’t stop at the burrito.

The chain fries chimichangas in-house too.

KRQE, an Albuquerque TV station, reported that Eater.com ranked them among the best gas station food in the country.

One fryer built it all.

Many gas stations that fry fresh food keep it to one signature item.

Allsup’s turned that same 1974 fryer into a second signature item.

That second item has earned outside recognition few gas-station kitchens ever see.

4. A Register-Side Wildfire Relief Fund

In 2024, Allsup’s turned its checkout counter into a disaster relief drive.

The Salt and South Fork fires burned nearly 23,000 acres around Ruidoso that June.

Yesway and Allsup’s pledged $100,000 to relief efforts and set a goal to raise another $100,000 from customers at the register.

Five Allsup’s stores serve Ruidoso, Mescalero, and Ruidoso Downs, the communities the fires forced to evacuate that June.

Customers could give a dollar at checkout, or five, or more, with the money routed to the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico.

That’s community, not marketing.

An at-the-register relief drive like that is rare at a gas station chain.

Its Start as a Roswell Grocery Store

Allsup’s got its start in Roswell, where Lonnie and Barbara Allsup opened a single drive-in grocery store in 1956.

The store stayed open longer than the competition and stocked fresh produce.

Lonnie put in gas pumps because customers asked for them.

That one addition changed everything.

By 1967, Allsup’s started letting customers pump their gas, years before that became the national norm.

Lonnie Allsup died January 28, 2018, at age 84.

By the mid-1960s, the business had grown into the Allsup’s chain based in Clovis, built around a simple slogan: “There’s one near you.”

Yesway finished acquiring Allsup’s in November 2019.

The company’s headquarters later moved from New Mexico to Fort Worth, Texas.

Its stores, and its burrito, never left.

New Mexico Still at the Center

Allsup’s has grown into a nine-state company without loosening its grip on home turf.

As of June 30, 2026, Yesway operated 450 Yesway and Allsup’s stores across Texas, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.

Yet Allsup’s-branded stores in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma alone make up nearly 90% of that whole network.

That leaves the rest of Yesway’s nine-state footprint looking almost like an afterthought by comparison.

Yesway began selling its Iowa and Kansas stores in 2025 to reinvest closer to the Allsup’s corridor.

That sale was still pending in mid-2026, with Yesway aiming to close it by year’s end.

Allsup’s never outgrew New Mexico.

In April 2026, Yesway raised $280 million going public on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol YSWY, its stock-market shorthand.

The listing made Yesway a publicly traded company for the first time in the chain’s history.

The Southwest corridor built around Allsup’s is still what investors bought into.

A Growing Burrito Lineup

Allsup’s didn’t stop at the original beef-and-bean recipe.

The lineup has grown to include a shredded beef version, the fried chimichanga, and in 2024, a Pepperoni Pizza Burrito stuffed with marinara and mozzarella.

Even the classic gets company.

Allsup’s built an entire product line around a single 1974 kitchen accident, and it’s still adding flavors five decades later.

The Allsup Family, Still Giving Back

The Allsup family never fully stepped away, even after selling the chain.

In 2024, the Allsup Family Charitable Foundation gave Eastern New Mexico University $2 million, the largest single gift the university’s foundation had ever received.

That’s not pocket change for a regional university.

Not every family sticks around.