Kwik Trip/Kwik Star is a chain of convenience stores founded in 1965 with locations throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota under the name Kwik Trip, and in Iowa under the name Kwik Star. The company also operates stores under the name Hearty Platter, Tobacco Outlet Plus, and Kwik Trip/Kwik Star Express. Kwik Trip, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Unlike many other convenience store chains, the company is vertically integrated across most of its product lines. It carries bag/pitcher 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 Midwestprofessional sports teams, including Minnesota's Twins and Vikings, along with the Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Brewers as well as the Official Chocolate Milk of the Milwaukee Bucks. All locations have a small grocery store 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 is currently being slowly rolled out to select stores. Many of the stores operate as full servicetruck stops, with dual-pump fuel islands. Many of the truck stop locations also have overnight parking, showers, and full-service Denny's restaurants.
Kwik Trip/Kwik Star store operations
Kwik Trip/Kwik Star stores employ a mixture of full-time and part-time employees. In addition to a store leader, each store employs an assistant store leader and about 3-5 guest service leaders. These employees are responsible for overseeing store operations while the store leader is out of the store. Additionally, each store has a food service leader and assistant food service leader responsible for overseeing the individual store's hot food program, ensuring that appropriate amounts of food are made and sold and the program continues to grow according to company expectations. District leaders supervise multiple stores in a given region, and zone leaders supervise multiple districts.
