Maverik might have bought Kum & Go, but it’s taking a page out of the latter’s playbook in joining convenience stores that sell branded apparel and merchandise.
The Salt Lake City-based chain has begun selling more than 30 branded clothing items and accessories, including hoodies, T-shirts, tumblers, socks, baseball hats, stickers, car magnets and day packs.
Prices for the merchandise, which can be ordered online, range from $2.99 for a car magnet to $89.99 for an all-season red puffer jacket.
“Did you see that we launched Maverik Gear on Friday?” the chain announced on Facebook on Feb. 13.
- Maverik is No. 21 on CSP's 2023 Top 202 list of the largest c-store chains in the country. Kum & Go is No. 22.
Des Moines, Iowa-based Kum & Go, meanwhile, sells apparel, drinkware and swag such as playing cards and a Bluetooth waterproof speaker.
Other convenience stores selling branded merchandise include Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven, which debuted its 7Collection in 2022; Lake Jackson, Texas-based Buc-ee’s; and La Crosse, Wisconsin-based Kwik Trip, which sold a Glazers-themed holiday sweater in December.
Elsewhere, Ballston Spa, New York-based Stewart’s Shops sells an array of items including a Flavor the Cow Bobblehead, and Wawa, Pennsylvania-based Wawa offers a paddle ball game.
“Adventure never stops calling,” Maverik said on its website. “Maverik Adventure Gear helps you answer with style. We’ve got the quality and look you’re after, whether you’re hitting the road, exploring a trail or simply searching for well-made clothing and accessories at an affordable price.”
In its acquisition of Kum & Go, Maverik is moving forward with a total rebranding for Kum & Go stores, and the brand will disappear by 2025, CSP Daily News first reported in early January. It rebranded a former Kum & Go location in Draper, Utah, to the Maverik brand in January.
The rebranding news comes months after Maverik, based in Salt Lake City, closed on The Krause Group’s approximately 400-store greater Midwestern chain, based in Des Moines, for an estimated $2 billion. Originally, Maverik—which also has about 400 stores in the Intermountain West region—said it would only rebrand Kum & Go stores in Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Chuck Maggelet, Maverik’s CEO, told the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) last fall that they were still deciding on whether to rebrand other Kum & Go locations and make other changes.
But the Utah retailer famous for its Adventure’s First Stop theme and sporty exterior design has, according to multiple sources, decided to retire the Kum & Go brand after deep consideration and a comprehensive assessment of the two chains found the Maverik brand resonated more effectively in its markets than Kum & Go did in the heart of its Midwestern terrain. There was also some concern about the inadvertent double entendre of the Kum & Go name, a former Maverik member shared withCSP.
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