BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- A Bryan, Texas, convenience store with a controversial past reopened earlier this month under new ownership. Susser Holdings Corp. has acquired the lone Chicks location, reported The Eagle.
The store was closed for inventory and all of the gasoline nozzles were covered with plastic bags for one day. Susser spokesperson Chip Bonner told the newspaper on April 1 that the rebranding to the company's Stripes c-store brand should be complete in 60 days.
He said that Stripes representatives worked to finalize the purchase with Chicks for months.
Susser does not intend to make any major changes to the Exxon-branded c-store, he said, but may eventually install a taco restaurant similar to the Laredo Taco Co. stores at other Stripes locations.
Stripes has stores in Conroe and Temple, Texas, but none in the Brazos Valley, said the report.
Last year, Bryan-based Chicks Development Group LLC settled a lawsuit filed by Lake Jackson, Texas-based c-store chain Buc-ee's Ltd. for trademark infringement. Buc-ee's had argued in the complaint, filed March 8, 2013, that the Chicks logo was a "copy of, or at the very least suggestive of, Buc-ee's logo."
Buc-ee's also argued that the store was decorated and set to up operate in a "confusingly similar" fashion to the Buc-ee's c-stores.
In May 2013, a Texas district court dismissed the lawsuit pending a settlement, and Chicks changed its logo.
Based in Corpus Christi, Texas, Susser Holdings is a third-generation, family-led business with more than 1,240 company-operated or contracted locations. It is the parent company of Stripes and owns the general partner of Susser Petroleum Partners LP. The company operates 627 convenience stores in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, more than 580 under the Stripes banner and 47 under the Sac-N-Pac banner. Restaurant service is available in approximately 400 of its stores, primarily under the proprietary Laredo Taco Co. brand. The wholesale division distributes approximately 1.6 billion gallons of motor fuel annually to Stripes stores, independently operated consignment locations, convenience stores and retail fuel outlets operated by independent operators and other commercial customers in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
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