WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Hy-Vee Inc. has acquired four QuikTrip convenience stores in the Des Moines metropolitan area that will reopen March 20 under the Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh Express brand.
The stores are in Clive, Urbandale, Johnston and Windsor Heights, Iowa.
QuikTrip, which has 820 c-stores in 11 states, put the four locations up for sale last April. It also closed one store because it built a new, Generation 3 c-store nearby.
“This is nothing new for QT,” Mike Thornbrugh, spokesperson for Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip, told CSP Daily News. “We are constantly reevaluating stores in all markets, and these four stores just don’t fit our long-term strategy.”
- QuikTrip is No. 11on theTop 40 update to CSP’s 2019 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by number of retail outlets. Hy-Vee is No. 40. CSP will release the complete 2020 list in June.
Hy-Vee is in the process of rebranding its 157 Hy-Vee Gas locations to Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh stores, company spokesperson Christina Gayman told CSP Daily Newslast September. There are currently 17 Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh and Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh Express locations.
Once converted into Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh Express locations, the stores will have traditional convenience offerings, as well as a variety of meal and snack options, including a fresh food express counter that will serve both breakfast and burgers, Nori Sushi, healthy home meal choices, Hy-Vee Short Cuts grab-and-go fruits and vegetables, fresh fried doughnuts, bakery options and other food choices. Each location will also have a wine and spirits section.
Fuel pumps will feature the Hy-Vee Fuel Saver and Perks programs. The four locations’ hours will be 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week.
The purchase comes as Hy-Vee has launched a restructuring initiative, Helpful Smile 2020, that includes the elimination of 24-hour operations at some supermarkets and could include layoffs.
West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee is an employee-owned supermarket and c-store chain operating more than 265 retail stores in eight Midwestern states with annual sales of $10 billion.
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