Kwik Trip/Kwik Star is a chain of convenience stores founded in 1965 with locations throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota under the name Kwik Trip, and in northeast Iowa under the name Kwik Star (to avoid confusion with QuikTrip). The company also operates stores under the name Hearty Platter, Tobacco Outlet Plus, and Kwik Trip/Kwik Star Express. Kwik Trip, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and has more than 500 locations under its various names.
Unlike many other convenience store chains, the company is vertically integrated across most of its product lines. It carries bag/pitcher milk and orange juice in pouches under the Nature's Touch brand via its in-house dairy. These pouches are notable for the Milk Moola banner on the top of the pouches (however the products are also offered in traditional jugs and bottles). Milk Moola is a Kwik Trip program that provides funding for schools, offering five cents per clipped pouch top. The program uses the catchphrase "Moola for Your Schoola". Kwik Trip also has an internal bakery operation which provides sliced and wrapped bread, doughnut and muffin products to its stores, along with a store brand snack line under the "Urge" branding. The company also maintains branding partnerships with several Upper Midwest professional sports teams, including Minnesota's Twins and Vikings, along with the Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Brewers.
All locations have a small grocery store selling basic fruits, bread, canned food, frozen food, and ice cream, along with traditional convenience store food such as bottled drinks and hot dogs. They also all have heated and ready-to-eat food, and will cook food to order off a small menu.
Many of the stores operate as full service truck stops, with dual-pump fuel islands. Many of the truck stop locations also have overnight parking, showers, and full-service Denny's restaurants.
Kwik Trip/Kwik Star store operations
Origins of Kwik Trip - Story about the founder of Kwik Trip and the beginnings of the now mega empire of convenience stores... put together for the 2015 Rochester, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Economic Summit.
Kwik Trip/Kwik Star stores employ a mixture of full-time and part-time employees. In addition to a store leader, each store employs an assistant store leader and about 3-5 guest service leaders. These employees are responsible for overseeing store operations while the store leader is out of the store. Additionally, each store has a food service leader and assistant food service leader responsible for overseeing the individual store's hot food program, ensuring that appropriate amounts of food are made and sold and the program continues to grow according to company expectations. District leaders supervise multiple stores in a given region, and zone leaders supervise multiple districts.
Workplace honors
In 2011, Kwik Trip was named by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as the number one large workplace (over 500 employees) for workers in Southeastern Wisconsin. Kwik Trip beat out Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation (MGIC) for the first spot.
Notes
External links
- Company Homepage
- About Kwik Trip
- Milk Moola program
- American Marketing Association Collegiate Case Competition featuring Kwik Trip
