QuikTrip
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| QuikTrip Corporation | |
 |
|
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1958 |
| Headquarters | Tulsa, Oklahoma |
| Key people | Chester Cadieux III, CEO Terry Carter, CFO |
| Industry | Retail (convenience stores) |
| Revenue | $5.86 billion (2004) |
| Employees | 7,600 |
QuikTrip (abbreviated QT) is a chain of convenience stores primarily found in the Midwestern and Southern United States (not to be confused with Kwik Trip convenience stores).
The first QuikTrip opened in 1958 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the privately held company is still headquartered today. QuikTrip heavily promotes its high-quality gasoline which it backs by a money-back guarantee. In 2004 QuikTrip and Chevron were the first two retailers to earn a "Top Tier" rating from General Motors, BMW, Honda, and Toyota. (The "Top Tier" rating exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency's standards for gasoline additives.) QuikTrip stores are well known for their large selection of fountain drinks, where customers can add cherry or vanilla flavoring to their drinks. They also have a wide range of comparatively good quality coffee and sandwiches. Normally its stores are quite large, offering anywhere from 6 to 24 gas pumps and a large retail space inside. Because all of its stores are owned and operated by the company, the interior has a uniform layout: to the right of the doors are magazines, potato chips, and other packaged snacks and the coolers housing bottled drinks; and to the left is the candy display, fountain drinks (including coffee and frozen drinks), the hot food area (currently comprising hot dogs, taquitos, Eggrolls, Corn dogs, and stuffed breadsticks), the coolers with cold sandwiches inside and the microwaves for those frozen products. Front and center in this layout is the checkstand, which usually has space for two or three employees and three to five POS registers.
QuikTrip operates 472 stores, most of which are concentrated in these eleven United States metropolitan areas:
- Oklahoma: Tulsa (60 stores)
- Kansas/Missouri: Kansas City (71 stores)
- Kansas: Wichita (35 stores)
- Iowa: Des Moines (32 stores)
- Arizona: Phoenix (52 stores)
- Missouri: St. Louis (69 stores)
- Georgia: Atlanta (110 stores)
- Texas: Dallas/Fort Worth (43 stores)
QuikTrip has a business practice of replacing older, less profitable stores with newer ones. Sometimes other convenience store chains, such as Kum & Go, move into abandoned QuikTrip stores.
In recent years, QuikTrip has been consistently listed among Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. The January 2006 version of the rankings placed QT at #21, ninth among companies classified as "mid-size." QuikTrip often uses this fact in recruiting new employees. QuikTrip also ranked 32nd on Forbes magazine's list of largest private companies in 2005. [1].
Its stores are more popular in its Midwestern stronghold than competitors (such as 7-Eleven) because it offers lower prices than its rivals. For example, a Slurpee at 7-Eleven costs $1.19 for a 22-ounce cup, whereas a Freezoni (QuikTrip's similar product) costs 89 cents. QT has become famous for a promotion where it sells a quart of soda for 59 cents during the summer months.
QuikTrip had its own branded goods marketed from the 1970s-1980s, including QT Beer — QT for "Quittin' Time." The ad campaign would say that it was "QT Time," and would often show a dog named Lamar. The dog's owner was portrayed in television commercials by actor Ben Jones, who often asked the dog, "Ain't that right, Lamar?"
