My grandfather opened the first TejanoMart 35 years ago. The first location had a dirt road as a cross street, and one of those air bells that dinged when a customer pulled in. Today, we have 30 locations from Brownsville to McAllen, selling everything from snacks and hot coffee to Shell premium gasoline.

We work hard to keep our stores looking good and running right. That means little things, like keeping trash cans clean and the front windows clear. And electricity plays a big role in our business. We need electricity for the lights, the registers, the coolers—critical parts of our stores. That’s why we’re in the process of transitioning our locations in de-regulated markets over to First Choice Power.

We’ve learned not to gamble with our electricity plan. With so many locations, we already have a lot of variables. A few years ago, we were with another power company, and we got burned when gas prices went up. Now, Sonia Lopez is our Business Development Manager at First Choice Power, and she’s very hands on. She showed us all of the options and put together a plan for migrating each of our locations over as the old contracts expire. We’re moving everything over to a fixed rate plan that gives us consistency in price.

The best thing about First Choice Power is the people. The level of communication is outstanding. Sonia’s always checking in with us, and she’s happy to answer any questions we have. And we love that there’s a local office right here in McAllen if we need to go in to pay a bill.

First Choice Power doesn’t just sell us electricity, they help us save it. Just last week, Sonia offered to send over an energy advisor to help us do walk-throughs at some of our highest volume stores. He’ll do things like look at our compressors, check out the seals on our cooler doors, and look for coils that need to be cleaned. That kind of service is why we’re happy with First Choice Power.

John Keller Vice President of Operations TejanoMart