PHOENIX --Convenience store chain QuikTrip has rolled out its made-to-order food concept in 87 of its Phoenix locations on January 7, reported The Phoenix Business Journal.
QT Kitchens offers a variety of food including sandwiches, pizzas, flatbreads, smoothies and coffee drinks. The QT Kitchens will operate from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
"We are getting into the fast-food business," Chuck Barton, QuikTrip's vice president of marketing and convenience store sales, told the newspaper.
QuikTrip spent the last 18 months remodeling its older stores in Phoenix and Tucson markets, adding the new kitchen areas. Barton said opening the kitchens in all of its markets has been a 10-year journey, including research, testing and rolling it out in 700 stores across 11 markets.
"We have rolled it out in eight of our 11 markets so far," Barton said. "It has been very well received for our Midwestern markets."
QuikTrip is implementing the kitchen concept in its stores in Phoenix, Dallas and Atlanta.
"I recognize there is a stigma about food in convenience stores, and we really have gone above and beyond and made sure we are using the best quality ingredients that we can," Nick Powell, QuikTrip's corporate chef, told the paper.
Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip operates more than 700 convenience stores in 11 states: Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.
Click here to view the full Phoenix Business Journal report.
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