• BUSINESS NAME: Sam's
• OWNER: Michael Contorno
• LOCATION: Canal Road, Orange Beach
• YEARS IN BUSINESS: 35

Businesses come and go, especially at the beach. But one convenience store on Canal Road has withstood the test of time — and hurricanes and recessions — for 35 years.

Michael Contorno, owner of Sam's, says he believes the business his father, Sam Contorno, started in May of 1978 has lasted because it meets the wide variety of needs of the permanent community in addition to tourists who are passing through. The store is open 364 days a year and operates from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.

“We got our concept to have a little bit of everything because if you wanted to buy anything when we first started, you went to Foley or Pensacola,” he said. “There were no grocery stores, condos or hotels back then.”

So along with gas and snacks, the small store has expanded over the years to offer a large selection of high-quality wine and beer, groceries, bait and tackle, boat supplies, beach items and even name-brand clothing, shoes and sunglasses for men, women and children.

“People kid us and say we're like the Walmart of Orange Beach,” said Joan Contorno, Michael's wife of 23 years. “We always say we were Sam's long before the big Sam's. But I think people like the idea that it's a neighborhood store where everybody knows your name when you come in.”

People are often shocked when they realize the depth of the selection at a gas station, Michael said.

“We have the best selection of wine on the island, and nobody expects that,” he said, noting that the store's most expensive bottle sells for $200. “We have really high dollar wine in just a little convenience store, but we also have a lot of great wine in the $15 to $20 range.”

Sam's has become famous not only for its selection, but for its logo, too. The logo, “Sleeping Sam,” is a sleeping Mexican man in a sombrero. Michael says the idea for the logo came about in the early 80s.

“Dad was just kind of an over-the-top character,” Michael said. “He always smoked a long cigar, but it wasn't even lit half the time. He just kind of chewed on it. The cigar was kind of his calling card. Well, in the wintertime, Orange Beach got pretty quiet back in the day. So one of our regular customers told me later that he walked in one day and saw dad sitting on a stool by the counter, and he had fallen asleep with his chin on his chest, and the cigar was burning a little hole in his shirt. He woke up real quick and said, 'Oh, I'm just resting my eyes.'”

That same customer found a figure that reminded him of that day — a sleeping Mexican. He brought it to the store and gave it to Sam, and “Sleeping Sam” has since become a recognizable logo and mascot for the store.

Although Sam died five years ago, his unique personality and family spirit live on in the store through three generations of family members who keep it going — Michael runs Sam's with nephews Joe and Mark Russo, and the Contorno's grandchildren also work at the store.

Although he puts in about 80 hours per week at Sam's, Michael said he wouldn't have it any other way. It's what he's been doing his entire life.

“All I know how to do is work in a store,” he said. “It's a family business, and I enjoy doing it.”