SuperAmerica convenience stores first opened in 1960 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They were first operated by Northwestern Refining of St. Paul Park, Minnesota. SuperAmerica operates stations primarily in Minnesota, but also a number of locations in western Wisconsin and eastern South Dakota. The chain formerly operated stores in Florida, but these were sold to Shell Oil in 1993. Ashland Petroleum purchased Northwestern Refining and the SuperAmerica chain in the 1970s. Ashland had marketed full-service stations under its own "Ashland" brand. As self-service was legalized, it used the brands "Solo", "Save Mart", "Save More", and "Rich", along with others. Ashland converted most of its outlets in its core territory to "SuperAmerica", while withdrawing from Florida. It maintained a few outlets under its other brand names to keep the trademarks valid. In 1997, Marathon and Ashland Petroleum merged, forming Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, a joint venture combining the companies’ refining, marketing and transportation businesses, with Marathon owning 62% of the operations while Ashland owned 38%. In the process, Ashland's SuperAmerica and Marathon's Speedway LLC convenience store chains were merged to form Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of MAP. SuperAmerica stores outside the upper midwest were rebranded as Speedway. In 2004 Marathon bought out Ashland's share. In February 2011, Marathon sold its SuperAmerica stores along with the Marathon refinery in St. Paul Park, Minnesota to Northern Tier Energy, a newly formed company backed by the private equity firmsACON Investments and TPG Capital. Northern Tier Energy went public in 2012. In 2013, Western Refining bought a controlling stake in Northern Tier Energy. In 2015, employees protested at the corporate headquarters in Woodbury, Minnesota, to lobby against low hourly wages and erratic employee scheduling. During the early 2010s, following the chain's purchase by Northern Tier Energy, the chain began to fall behind competitors. Shoppers reported rusting canopies, water damaged ceilings, broken tile floors, and malfunctioning soda machines. As SuperAmerica's primary competitor Holiday Stationstores continually invested in locations, SA stagnated. Upon Kwik Trip and Casey's entrance to the local market SA fell further behind. Holiday was generating twice as much revenue per store as SA. Furthermore, SA failed to further develop its food service offerings like their competitors did in the 2010s. On October 11, 2018, it was announced on the chain's webpage that SuperAmerica locations were being rebranded as Speedway locations. This decision follows Marathon's acquisition of SuperAmerica beginning in May 2018.
Rewards programs
SuperAmerica maintains a rewards program for customers called "My SA Rewards." Points in the program are redeemable for discounts in gasoline purchase or on other purchases in stores. The rewards program offers 3 cents off per gallon of gasoline. From 2011 to 2016, the company accepted the coupons of competitors gas coupons. The company also offers its own credit card to reduce cost of gasoline by 5 cents per gallon. The credit card is offered to customers in partnership with the bank First Bankcard.
