QuikTrip Prepares to Enter Alabama

TULSA, Okla. — With a new year comes a new market for QuikTrip Corp.

The convenience store retail is expected to break ground on its first c-store in Alabama later this year. The store is planned for Tuscaloosa.

Bryan Winter, a Tuscaloosa-based attorney representing the retailer, told the TuscaloosNews.com that barring unforeseen hurdles, QuikTrip could welcome its first Alabama customers as early as summer or fall 2021.

The Tuscaloosa City Council paved the way for QuikTrip to enter the market when it voted unanimously on Feb. 4 to annex an 8.96-acre tract off Buttermilk Road to accommodate the new business, according to the news outlet.

In January, the council rezoned the tract near Interstate 20/59's Exit 77 to BH, or neighborhood business, in anticipation of the annexation vote.

QuikTrip plans to erect a sign on an adjacent lot to attract interstate travelers. Although the c-store's forecourt will feature a diesel gas pump island, the location is not intended to be an overnight truck stop like nearby travel plazas, Winters said.

Tulsa-based QuikTrip currently operates more than 800 c-stores in 11 states.