Supply Shortage Prompts Kwik Trip to Ask Customers to Bring Their Own Cups

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Kwik Trip Inc. is asking customers to BYOC — bring your own cup — due to a supply shortage that is affecting many foodservice retailers.  

In a Facebook post, the convenience store chain initially said that "due to a few ships stuck at sea," it is out of coffee cups, but then went on to blame an unnamed rival. "A gas station that shall not be named stole them," the retailer stated in the post.

To make up for the inconvenience, customers who bring their own cups can temporarily get any-size refill for just 99 cents.

To "save some money, save some paper, save some cups," Kwik Trip also posted a list of fun cup substitutions to try, including Tupperware, a vase, a fish tank, and a snow globe.

While Kwik Trip may be handling the situation with good humor, the shortage of disposable coffee cups due to supply chain disruptions is causing wider problems beyond the c-store industry.

Foodservice retailers and suppliers alike are struggling to get enough cups due to imports from China getting stuck in ports, American paper mills lacking enough workers, and last winter's cold snap in Texas suspending the production of resins used to make plastic cups and coating for paper cups, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Lid scarcity is also a problem, particularly because lids from one brand may not fit well on a cup from another brand and result in spills.

The Plastics Industry Association forecasts a 3.1 percent increase in the output of plastic products, including cups, but the worker shortage has challenged production at plastic plants, according to the report.

Founded in 1965, La Crosse-based Kwik Trip operates convenience 800 stores in the Midwest. Its stores are known as Kwik Trip in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and as Kwik Star in Iowa.