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![]() A typical Kwik Trip store | |
Kwik Trip (in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan) Kwik Star (in Iowa, Illinois, and South Dakota) (with a few exceptions) | |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Retail |
Founded | 1965Eau Claire, Wisconsin | in
Founder | John Hansen, Don Zietlow |
Headquarters | La Crosse, Wisconsin |
Number of locations | 878 (Jul. 2024)[1] |
Area served | |
Key people |
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Products |
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Services | |
Owner | Zietlow Family |
Number of employees | 36,457 (2024)[5] |
Website | www |
Kwik Trip is a chain of convenience stores founded in 1965[6] with locations throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan under the name Kwik Trip, and in Illinois, Iowa, and South Dakota[7] under the name Kwik Star (to avoid confusion with QuikTrip), although the Dixon, IL location operates as Kwik Trip. The company also operates stores under the name Tobacco Outlet Plus, Tobacco Outlet Plus Grocery, Hearty Platter, Kwik Spirits, and Stop-N-Go. Kwik Trip, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in La Crosse, Wisconsin.[8]
Unlike many other convenience store chains, Kwik Trip is a food service leader; the company is vertically integrated across most of its product lines. It carries bagged milk and orange juice in pouches under the Nature's Touch brand via its in-house dairy. Kwik Trip also has an internal bakery operation which provides sliced and wrapped bread, doughnut and muffin products to its stores, along with a store brand snack line under the "urge" branding. The company also maintains branding partnerships with several Upper Midwest professional sports teams, including Minnesota's Twins, Vikings, and Wild, along with the Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, and Milwaukee Bucks (the last featured as part of its chocolate milk line).
All locations have small grocery sections selling basic fruits, bread, canned food, frozen food, sliced cheeses, and ice cream, along with traditional convenience store food such as bottled drinks and hot dogs. Notably, the chain has sold bananas, baking potatoes, and yellow onions for 39 cents per pound as a loss leader, along with fresh beef, hot dogs, bratwurst, and chicken. They also all have heated and ready-to-eat food, and will cook food to order off a small menu. In 2018, the company acquired the south-central Wisconsin chain PDQ, which offered fresh fried chicken in their stores; the PDQ recipe and chicken was slowly rolled out to select stores before being available at most locations.[9] The next year, the chain began to offer home delivery of hot food in select markets through a partnership with EatStreet.
Stores located off major highway exits operate as full service truck stops, with dual-pump fuel islands. Many of the truck stop locations also have overnight parking, showers, and full-service Denny's restaurants. Automatic car washes are also available at many stores, with some restrictions on availability and hours due to local noise and environmental ordinances.