Can Kwik Trip/Kwik Star Become The Next Love's And Compete?

Yes you are totally right, very good point. I actually went as far as going on google maps satellite view to look at locations they have, lol! I’m at home watching the carpenters build a new patio cover and have way to much time on my hands, I suppose I should look at that list the wife made for me at some point… naw.

 

Kwik Trip and Quick Trip QT are different companies.

 

We have a QT they just built here in Cibolo, Tx. It’s super nice. Then of course the TA up the road, I never fuel at the TA’s but they always seem to have parking in those big lots, of course they never bother to actually grade them out so your truck is at a 45 degree angle but if there is a Popeyes inside, pretty solid chance I’m in the parking lot.

 

I don't see Kwik Trip or even QT, another company, from "taking up the slack" or building lots of truck parking that everyone agrees is desperately needed. Their is not enough money to be made by furnishing large pieces of pavement for a hundred plus trucks simply because there are hundred of trucks needing parking. The revenue to truck stops comes from their convenience stores, fuel, and shop if they have one. A fairly large percentage of trucks parked in the big parking lots might buy less than $12 of items at the truck stop. Some percentage, I was normally one of them, often spent nothing at the truck stop. If I did spend anything it was at the fast-food restaurant only. It costs an awful lot of money to prepare a couple of acres of flat ground and pave it and maintain it. The county/city is collecting lots of property taxes just from the improvements and the size of the lot. Financially, it's not very smart to provide much truck parking, even though I agree we desperately need more parking everywhere. I wouldn't invest money in parking for trucks. You'll know it makes financial sense to provide truck parking when people build new paid truck parking or the current truck stops convert free parking to paid-only parking and not just here and there and not just in the most crowded/expensive locations. The free standing paid parking is almost always someone buying a failed gas station or past business with pavement and just throwing up a barricade to keep out people that don't pay. Or someone converts a gravel drop yard to paid parking.

There are probably magazines about the truck stop industry where you or i could find how much the average truck spends at a truck stop. I cannot imagine that average amount spent would support someone building paid parking and making a profit.

 

QTs are awesome.