What's In Store: Buc-ee's, Parker's & Thorntons
NATIONAL REPORT — The convenience store industry landscape is constantly changing as chains open and close stores each week. On a regular basis, Convenience Store News highlights these comings and goings in this special roundup.
Buc-ee's
Buc-ee's broke ground on its new travel center in Hillsboro, Texas, on Jan. 24. Located at 165 State Highway 77, Buc-ee's Hillsboro will occupy 74,000 square feet and offer 120 fueling positions.
Favorites including Texas barbeque, homemade fudge, kolaches, Beaver Nuggets, jerky and fresh pastries will all be available at the new location, as well as the retailer's award-winning restrooms and cheap gas.
Throughout the project, Buc-ee's corporate development team will continue to work closely with local partners including the City of Hillsboro and Hill County. The location will bring at least 200 jobs to the area, with starting pay beginning well above minimum wage, full benefits, a 6 percent matching 401k and three weeks of paid vacation.
Foxtrot
Foxtrot officially opened its seventh DMV-area location to the public at the end of January in the Farragut Square neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
The store, located at 888 17th St., offers Foxtrot's signature all-day café experience, complete with thoughtfully sourced coffee, seasonal café drinks, fresh smoothies, breakfast tacos, chef-prepared salads and bowls, and grab-and-go meals for lunch and dinner.
Additionally, the store contains everything from local craft beers and fine wines hand-selected by an in-house sommelier to everyday essentials. All of its offerings are available to enjoy in-store, for pickup and with on-demand delivery through the brand's proprietary app.
The Farragut Square store will cater to the surrounding office buildings, providing a space for lunch meetings, coffee breaks and snack breaks, according to the convenience retailer. The space was developed by Foxtrot's in-house design team in partnership with NAHRA as interior designer.
Maverik — Adventure's First Stop
Maverik continued expansion into California with its third store opening in Anderson.
"Maverik just celebrated its 400th store location in Magna, Utah, and we're thrilled to continue our regional expansion in California," said Chuck Maggelet, president and chief adventure guide at Maverik. "Our two California stores opened in the last two years, west Sacramento and Oroville, have been well received by residents and travelers in the area and we're excited to bring a new and unique shopping experience to the community in Anderson, serving even more California customers."
The newest Maverik store at 2590 N. St. in Anderson is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At just more than 5,000 square feet, the location features a full line-up of fresh made-to-order food offerings. For added convenience, Maverik features assisted check-out registers and various in-store contactless payment technologies, including Venmo, Paypal and Apple Tap to Pay.
Maverik will serve guests heading to nearby outdoor activities and attractions like Anderson River Park and Mt. Shasta. Customers will capture the feel of adventure inside the store with panoramic photos and maps of the area's outdoor destinations on the walls, alongside adventure videos playing on TVs, gas pumps and soda fountains.
Parker's
Parker's added two new Parker's Kitchen locations to its portfolio in January. The company opened one Parker's Kitchen at 4440 Highway 17 in Guyton, Ga., and the other at 5 Oliver Ct. in Bluffton, S.C.
The Parker's Kitchen in Guyton is the company's 73rd convenience store and offers the retailer's Southern-style, made-from-scratch food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as a wide range of convenience items.
The store design is a hybrid Southern-inspired prototype offering a modern, contemporary glass-front exterior with a brick facade and designer lighting. An expanded retail footprint features an optimized interior layout with manned and self-checkout stations. The store also features porcelain walls and floors, in addition to sparkling restrooms designed with upscale amenities and high-end materials.
Other amenities include regular and diesel fueling positions, including high-flow diesel, and parking for commercial trucks.
The Parker's Kitchen along the Bluffton Parkway is the company's 74th retail store. It boasts the retailer's new Lowcountry-inspired prototype offering a modern, contemporary glass-front facade with lime-washed brick, handsome bracketry and designer lighting. It also boasts an expanded retail footprint with manned and self-check-out stations.
The new store features 12 regular and diesel fueling positions, and four marine fuel positions.
Both locations offer popular grab-and-go options as well as a hot bar serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily and electronic kiosk ordering. Additional highlights include the Parker's Kitchen Spicy Chicken Tender Sandwich, freshly made salads, gourmet coffee, freshly brewed sweet tea, lemonade, 28-degree beer, fountain drinks with Chewy Ice and a wide range of convenience items.
QuikTrip Corp.
QuikTrip (QT) unlocked the doors of a new remote travel center in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Jan. 12. After opening 11 new travel centers in 2022, the retailer will continue to expand throughout 2023 with new locations across the country.
The travel center at 312 Browns Ferry Road features a larger designed lot and a more spacious store than a traditional QT. It has room to service 18 cars for gas and six diesel bays for trucks.
"We are excited to introduce our QuikTrip remote travel center in Chattanooga. We look forward to introducing our unique QuikTrip brand and culture to our new community," said Aisha Jefferson-Smith, QuikTrip's corporate communications manager. "The travel center allows us to not only create meaningful connections with our new local customers in Chattanooga, but also serve travelers in this busy part of the country."
According to the retailer, QT's new store model was created specifically for highly traveled areas of the country that are also within a reasonable proximity to a QT Distribution Center for access to fresh food.
Chattanooga customers can enjoy the full line of QT snackles, including freshly brewed coffee and fresh-brewed QTea, as well as its complete menu of grab-and-go items like fresh doughnuts, salads, wraps, QT's signature pizza by the slice and roller grill items. The Chattanooga travel center also features an expanded QT Kitchens location offering fresh, made-to-order food, premium specialty drinks and frozen treats.
Thorntons LLC
Thorntons welcomed customers at its newest Chicagoland store — and the first in Riverwoods, Ill. — on Feb. 3. The company now operates 88 stores in Illinois, 68 of which are in Chicagoland.
Located at 1055 N. Milwaukee Ave., the 4,400-square-foot Thorntons convenience store is set on 1.69 acres and features a number of amenities to serve on-the-go guests, including self-checkout; LED lighting; freshly made burritos and sandwiches prepared throughout the day in the store's onsite kitchen; a variety of beverages, including fresh bean to cup coffee and ice-cold fountain beverages with nugget ice; and 16 auto fueling positions.
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