Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip opened its first Tucson, Ariz. c-store at 2345 E. Irvington Road on Wednesday night, ahead of it’s scheduled opening Thursday morning.
On Wednesday night, “we were just standing around taking pictures; we were ready to go, and finally we just took the barricades down and let them in . . . about 9 p.m.,” Troy DeVos , QuikTrip’s director of real estate told the Arizona Daily Star.
QuikTrip operates 537 stores in nine states, has opened 70 stores in the Phoenix area since 2000. The Irvington Road location marks the first of four stores the chain is scheduled to open in Tucson before late April. And there may be plans for more stores on the horizon.
Company spokesman Mike Thornbrugh told the Arizona Daily Star that he couldn’t comment on the company’s Tucson expansion plans beyond the first four stores, but that QuikTrip typically comes in to “build as many as the market will hold.”
The new c-store will be open 24/7/365 and fresh food is a major focus. The store features about 18 feet of roller grill space for hot dogs, sausages, taquitos more; cases of fresh-made doughnuts, muffins and other pastries; banks of smoothie, milkshake and Freezoni machines; five coffee blends; flavored cappuccino dispensers; and a soda fountain featuring Coke products.
For the health conscious consumer, it is offering fresh fruit, yogurt and granola cups, and freshly made sandwiches on whole wheat, honey wheat or even berry wheat bread (260 to 340 calorie count).
While gasoline is still a big profit generator, the chain also is focusing on the selection offered inside the store. “We sell almost 1.8% of the gasoline sold in the U.S.-just shy of $8 billion sales revenue for fiscal 2008. But we have really concentrated on the inside. We spend an awful lot of money on our inside presentation,” Thornbrugh said.