Kwik Trip Retains Top Spot Among Best U.S. Gas Station Brands
LA CROSSE, Wis. — Consumers have spoken and Kwik Trip Inc. continues to reign supreme when it comes to the top gas station banners.
For the second year in a row, the La Crosse-based convenience store and gas station operator takes the crown in USA Today's 10Best Reader's Choice Awards. Known as Kwik Trip in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and as Kwik Star in Iowa, the company operates 800 c-stores.
Kwik Trip hit the 800th c-store milestone at the end of 2021. With the opening of the site in Holmen, Wis., the company doubled its store count in eight years. The retailer opened its 400th store in Chisago City, Minn., in 2013, as Convenience Store News previously reported.
The company also recently grew its family of brands with the launch of Kwik Spirits, a new store format that features a wide variety of products such as wine, liquor, beer and tobacco, including humidor cigars, roll-your-own, chewing tobacco, vape products and cigarettes.
Kwik Spirits stores can be found in Cloquet, Rush City, Byron and Owatonna, Minn.; Cumberland, Janesville (two stores) and Baraboo, Wis.; and Fort Dodge, Iowa.
The retailer did not say whether it has plans for future Kwik Spirits locations.
Kwik Trip is the second convenience store operator to add spirits offerings in the last year. Parker's, operator of 69 c-stores throughout southeast Georgia and South Carolina, opened its first Parker's Spirits liquor store in February 2021.
A panel of experts partnered with 10Best editors to pick the initial nominees, and the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote. The retailers rounding out the USA Today's top 10, in order, are:
- West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee Inc.
- Savannah, Ga.-based Parker's
- York, Pa.-based Rutter's
- Salt Lake City-based Maverik
- Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based QuickChek
- Oklahoma City-based Love's Travel Stops
- Altoona, Pa.-based Sheetz Inc.
- Atlanta-based RaceTrac Petroleum
- Westlake, Ohio-based TravelCenters of America Inc.
Repeat chains on the 2022 ranking include Hy-Vee — which also took the No. 2 spot in the 2021 ranking — Rutter's, Sheetz, Parker's, Love's, and Maverik. New to this year's ranking are QuickChek, RaceTrac and TravelCenters of America.
In this year's ranking, Parker's bumped Rutter's to the No. 4 spot. The Savannah-based operator promoted the 10Best contest on Facebook and encouraged voting by promising customers and fans that if it came in third place, Parker's would make a video of the company's mascot, Chewy, dumping a bucket of sweet tea and chewy ice on CEO Greg Parker. If it hit No. 1, it would rent a dunk tank.
On Friday, Parker's announced its third-place win with a video of Parker getting sweet tea and chewy ice dumped on him and commenting, "Do your thing, Chewy. We did it. Thank you to everyone who voted Parker's the #3 Best Gas Station brand in the US Today 10 Best readers poll! That's #3 in the entire country, which is a big, huge deal. We couldn't have done this without YOU! And now, for the moment we've all been waiting for...."