From afar, the shop seemed to hold promise — not for the spirits inside, but for the two steel structures in front, recognizable to any traveler on empty. Upon closer examination, however, it turned out that the pumps had long ago gone dry. In places like Lula, it seems booze has proven the more profitable stream. The older gentlemen loitering outside could not recall when the pumps last ran.

The few commercial entities that appear in the Mississippi Delta, where the roads run long between isolated small towns, are commonly gas stations. Out of necessity, these places function more often like old-time general stores, where in addition to fuel pumps — or, increasingly, in place of fuel pumps — these establishments serve as small restaurants, take-out eateries and grocery stores for communities otherwise without.

Rural counties in the Mississippi Delta average one grocery per 190 square miles — a statistic that often leads scholars and politicians to call out the region when defining food deserts: low-income areas without access to a traditional grocery store within one mile of home. While many residents of the Delta make long journeys to big supermarkets on occasion, gas stations pinch hit as the go-to food purveyors in town.

And contrary to popular narratives, that doesn’t always equate to Hot Cheetos and Mountain Dew.