The History Behind QuickChek's 50th Anniversary Celebration
By Greg Lindenberg on Feb. 21, 2017WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. -- Convenience-store retailer QuickChek Corp. is celebrating its 50th anniversary by rewarding customers with 10 weeks of five offers each week.
The chain began offering a variety of in-store and mobile app offers on Feb. 20, and they will run through April 30. Deals and savings range from free coffee and fountain drinks to buy one, get one free offers from QuickChek’s menu of sandwiches, subs, smoothies, snacks and packaged goods.
Click through for the history behind the deals …
“We are thrilled to celebrate 50 years of meeting the needs of our customers,” said QuickChek CEO Dean Durling. “While we opened the very first QuickChek store on March 15, 1967, we feel our customers deserve more than a one-day celebration. We have 50 very exciting offers over the next two months covering our extensive menu of fresh food, beverages and on-the-go snack items.”
The QuickChek story began in 1888 when Durling Farms was founded to serve the central New Jersey region with milk and dairy products, delivered fresh to the customer’s door.
In 1967, Carlton C. Durling founded QuickChek to ensure that loyal Durling Farms customers had a neighborhood shopping destination not only for their milk but for a full range of deli and other food products. He opened the first QuickChek convenience store in Dunellen, N.J.
In 2010, CSP magazine honored Dean Durling as its Retail Leader of the Year.
Click here to watch CSP TV coverage.
QuickChek’s c-stores offer touchscreen technology that enables customers to create subs, sandwiches, wraps and salads and personalized hot and cold beverages.
In addition to a coffee wall, QuickChek’s in-store Q Cafes feature baristas who custom-make more than 60 varieties of handcrafted hot and iced cold drinks, including blended-to-order fruit smoothies and espressos brewed with the chain’s own Dark Roast espresso beans in regular, decaf and extra shots.
The stores also offer a variety of grocery and market items, including fresh baked goods from an in-store bakery.
In a 2014 Technomic survey, consumers voted QuickChek's coffee the best in the country.
The food-industry research company asked respondents to identify the retail chains they visited from among 22 brands. They were asked detailed questions about their most recent visit to that c-store chain, followed by brand-specific questions relating to reasons for visiting, occasion and ratings of the brand across 50 attributes.
The survey included the 20 largest convenience-store chains by number of units that offer foodservice, plus QuickChek and Pilot Flying J, which were chosen for their distinctive offerings.
QuickChek has been named one of the Best Places to Work in New Jersey for the seventh time by NJBIZ and one of the Best Companies to Work for in New York State for the fifth time by the New York State Society for Human Resources Management and Best Companies Group compile the list for New York.
The company said its starting pay has been above the New Jersey and New York state minimums for the past nine years. All of the company’s district leaders and most of its vice presidents began their careers working in a local store, it said.
“We empower our team members to be successful,” said Durling. “The store leader manages that store as if it is their own. This helps them connect with our customers on a personal level, to create that neighborhood shopping experience and provide the outstanding customer service for which we are known.”
The company offers full-time employees benefits including medical, dental, vision and life insurance, a 401(k) savings plan, fitness center reimbursement and pet insurance.
Entering its 25th year, QuickChek’s title sponsorship of the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning in association with PNC Bank is the longest running sponsorship of any festival in the United States.
Privately held, Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based QuickChek has 147 c-stores in New Jersey and New York’s Hudson Valley and Long Island. Most of the stores are open 24 hours.