America’s first all-vegan gas station sold for $12M in Bay Area

From eating green to seeing green.

A first-of-its-kind Bay Area gas station has sold for a whopping $12 million — a lucrative number far higher than its owner and founder anticipated, according to a CBS report.

Dubbed America’s first “plant-based mart”, Hangry Planet in San Bruno first opened in 2022, selling eggless breakfast sandwiches with Beyond Meat products, veggie burgers and vegan hot chocolate — which turned out to be a winning combo in the San Francisco-adjacent city.

Founder Bobak Bakhtiari said he was inspired to open the plant-based convenience store after catching a glimpse behind the scenes of the way dairy farming works, he said.

“As an ecstatic steak and dairy/cheese enthusiast, I was abruptly buzz-killed by the reality of rampant abuse on dairy farms and how I have been blindly fueling abuse via traditional embrace of food choices,” he told Convenience Store News in 2023.

“With Hangry Planet, I sought to affirm that we truly don’t need to remain complicit and support stealing baby calves from mom in order to provide on-the-go meals and snacks.”

Bakhtiari said he chose NorCal because of the popularity of plant-based diets in the area.

“I felt like, with a high-traffic, junk-food milieu of convenience stores, it’s the perfect environment to help educate and transform people’s habits,” Bakhtiari said.

When the store first went all-vegan, Bakhtiari said sales took a 20% hit, worrying the entrepreneur. Eventually, sales increased by around 30%, he said.

The unique nature of what would otherwise have been a typical snack stop also attracted customers from far and wide.

“A gas station convenience store that is entirely plant based, you just don’t ever hear that marriage happening, and you might not expect that,” frequent customer Tyler MacNiven of Sunnyvale told CBS.

Though they live 20 minutes away and only drive electric cars, MacNiven and his family say they visit the gas station at least twice a month for its vegan goodies.

Hangry Planet is also an attraction for its whimsical exterior. It’s roof is decorated with large sculptures and there’s an immersive, virtual reality car wash.

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Bakhtiari will now reportedly move on to operating a franchise location of a Midwest-based vegan fast food restaurant, called Unburger.

The California Post reached out to Hangry Planet for comment on the future of the convenience store.