CLOQUET, Minn. -- Fast-growing Kwik Trip has opened a new convenience store—the chain's 500th location—in Cloquet, Minn., reported The Duluth News Tribune.
The La Crosse, Wis.-based company operates c-stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin under the Kwik Trip name and in Iowa under the Kwik Star name. The first Kwik Trip opened in Eau Claire, Wis., in 1965; the chain grew to 100 locations by 1986 and 250 locations by 1997. It opened its 400th store in Chisago City, Minn., in 2013, said the report.
Kwik Trip arrived in the “Twin Ports” of Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., in August 2014, with its first store in Superior. The chain now has six stores in Superior; four in Duluth; two in Hermantown and Cloquet, Minn.; and one each in Scanlon and Moose Lake, Minn.
In 2014, Scott Teigen, Kwik Trip’s vice president and CFO, told the News Tribune that in five years, Kwik Trip could have 20 stores extending from Duluth south to Hinckley or Pine City, Minn., within the greater Twin Ports-area market. He didn’t comment on expansion in other markets.
Kwik Trip had been eyeing the Twin Ports as a good market for some time, company officials said at the time. Because the retailer delivers fresh foods to its stores daily, trucking the food to a large group of stores in an area is more cost-effective than delivering to just a few. And advertising for 15 stores costs the same as advertising for one, they said.
More stores are on the way, the newspaper said.
The company is converting the former Junction Oasis Truck Stop near Carlton, Minn., into a Kwik Trip, said the report. The Two Harbors, Minn., Kwik Trip is slated to open Nov. 17. A seventh Superior location is scheduled to open Dec. 1, and plans are in the works for a store in Rice Lake, Minn. And the Ashland (Wis.) Daily Press reported that Kwik Trip is planning a store there.
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