A Spicy Oasis on the Interstate: The Tale of Ass Kickin’ Gift Shop
Nestled just off Interstate 10, a key artery between Arizona and Los Angeles, lies a unique market and roadside attraction. The Ass Kickin’ Gift Shop, a bustling warehouse-sized establishment, offers an array of spicy jams and hot sauces, each featuring its signature cartoon donkey logo.
Despite its vibrant offerings, the shop maintained a serene atmosphere on a recent weekday morning. Across the street, an iconic beaver emblem marks the location of a new market competitor.
Founded in Glendale in 1986 by Jeff Jacobs, Ass Kickin’ products began with a modest selection of barbeque and hot sauces. Jeff, alongside his wife Linda, grew the business by initially selling to independent grocery stores and gift shops. “We just went out on the road, peddling our hot sauces to gift shops,” Linda Jacobs explained.
In 2001, the couple moved their business to Goodyear, a then-small community of 22,000. Today, their store boasts over 200 products, including spicy nuts and prickly pear lotion, serving a rapidly growing city now home to more than 100,000 residents, Amazon warehouses, and multiple data centers.
“We’re mainly a specialty food manufacturer, so our products can be found in gift shops and tourist areas and airports and specialty retailers, but they can’t go to the local grocery store to find it,” Linda Jacobs said.
Customer Loyalty
Ass Kickin’ has fostered strong loyalty among local Goodyear residents and beyond. Mary Karpe, a local, has been a dedicated customer for ten years, appreciating its hometown roots. John Shanks, a fan of their Jalapeno Cheddar peanuts, drives over an hour from Congress, Arizona, bi-monthly to stock up on gifts.
As Goodyear evolves, so does Ass Kickin’. The shop is set on a new path with the arrival of Buc-ee’s, a Texas-based gas station chain, opening its doors right across the street. Linda Jacobs anticipates changes, saying, “We’re all kind of skeptical about how this is going to impact traffic, but they’re very popular.”
The shop, operating under the name Southwest Specialty Food, distributes its unique products nationwide to gift shops and tourist areas but maintains a different business model from Buc-ee’s, which limits its distribution to physical stores.
“It’s a completely different business model,” Jacobs noted. “We make something completely different than what they do. … We’re all about Ass Kickin’ and Spontaneous Combustion and Hot Sauce from Hell, so those are our brands that we hope people continue to support and find.”
A New Chapter
Located in a thriving economic zone, Ass Kickin’ Gift Shop sees its strategic location as crucial for continued success. Linda Jacobs emphasized, “Being on a major freeway like this is very appealing. Again, I-10 is the main freeway from California into Phoenix, there’s people on it all the time, from all over.”
This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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