History
While driving through Dallas, Burt Holmes was intrigued by the success of 7-Eleven and decided to open a small grocery store in his home town of Tulsa. He took on classmate Chester Cadieux as a partner in his planned venture.[7] Holmes and Cadieux each invested $5,000, and three other investors put up $2,000 each for the venture.[8]
The first QuikTrip store was opened in a Tulsa strip mall in 1958, which sold a limited selection of groceries with high prices for the convenience.[9] The chain grew rapidly, opening its first store outside Tulsa in 1964, expanding to Missouri in 1968 and Iowa in 1974.[7] The company incorporated on May 19, 1958, originally naming the business Quick-Trip until Sam Karney, the art director of the sign shop, suggested the signage would be more balanced with four letters on each side. The "c" was dropped, and the name became Quik-Trip
QuikTrip began to sell gasoline in 1971 as states legalized self-service stations. In the early 1970s, co-founder Cadieux eliminated slow-moving merchandise from the stores' inventory, such as canned vegetables, and stocked a larger quantity of items priced low for high-volume sales, such as beer, soda, coffee, cigarettes, and candy.[9] In 1976, it became one of the first convenience store chains to be open 24 hours a day. Also that year, it adopted its now-famous "QT" logo.[7]
QuikTrip had its own branded goods marketed from the 1970s to the 1980s, including QT Beer—QT for "Quittin' Time". The ad campaign, "It's QT Time Again", would often show a dog named Lamar. The dog's owner was portrayed in television commercials by actor Ben Jones, who often asked the dog, "Ain't that right, Lamar?"[10]
In 1987, Cadieux was the first inductee into the Convenience Store Hall of Fame and was noted for being the first to offer self-serve fountain drinks, the first to design and offer a fast food module, the first to open a downtown convenience store, and the first to install personal computers in the stores and tie them to the company's mainframe.[8]
In 1988, upon rapid expansions into the St. Louis and Atlanta markets, QuikTrip began a renovation of all stores, primarily replacing the earthtone exterior and interior with a bright red color scheme. The interior décor featured red countertops and a red quarry tile floor; with almond tile on the walls interspersed with painted red sections of the walls to create contrast. Some gold trim maintained continuity from the previous décor. The company also took more care with landscaping around the store.[9] By the early 1990s, QuikTrip began to offer fast foods and fountain beverages at its stores, being the first convenience store to offer a self-serve soda fountain and a self-serve coffee bar. Expensive advertising led the company to phase out the private label beer by this time.[9]
In 1994, QuikTrip acquired the former Memorex/Telex Communications headquarters in Tulsa and remodeled part of the building for its Oklahoma division. In 2003, QuikTrip decided to consolidate all employees into one corporate campus in south Tulsa and sold the building to Community Care College.[11]
In 2017, QuikTrip announced plans to expand into two additional markets in Texas, San Antonio and Austin.[12] The first San Antonio store opened in October 2018, with three more locations opening in the following months.[13]
In 2019, Quiktrip announced plans through an internal video, that was also posted to their Instagram page, that they will be expanding into the Denver, Colorado market starting in 2022 with 5 stores planned for that year. They shared the video with the quote, "see you soon, Denver!" [14]
In October 2020, QuikTrip announced plans to enter the healthcare sector with 15 Tulsa-area MedWise Urgent Care clinics in the next two years.[15][16]
In 2021, QuikTrip announced it would open its first stores in the Oklahoma City market, with its first two stores opening in 2024. This announcement coming shortly after 7 Eleven Inc acquired the 7 Eleven of Oklahoma stores after 67 years of independence from the global brand. The timing of QuikTrip's move into the OKC market brought rumors that the ownership of QuikTrip and the owners of 7 Eleven of Oklahoma had a deal to keep out of each other's markets as there never was a 7 Eleven store in Tulsa just as there had never been a QuikTrip in OKC.
In 2024, QuikTrip expanded into Ohio by opening locations in the Dayton, Ohio area. Dayton, which serves as a major long-haul crossroads for Interstate 70 & 75 and until 2022 served as the headquarters of Speedway in nearby Enon, has been a major target for convenience store expansion in recent years, with the area being targeted by Sheetz, Casey's, Wawa, RaceTrac, and Buc-ee's to compete with the area's traditional competitors Speedway and Circle K. QuikTrip's arrival in the area beat all of the aforementioned chains except Sheetz and Casey's.[17][18]
In April 2025, QuikTrip opened its store in Indiana for the first time with its inaugural Hoosier State location opening in Daleville.[19] This move comes as part of QuikTrip's aggressive 2025 expansion strategy, which includes multiple new locations across the Midwest.[20] 2025 also saw the return of Quittin' Time Beer through a partnership with Tulsa craft brewers Marshall Brewing. Initially only available in Tulsa-area stores as a nostalgia item, its distribution has since expanded into its Kansas and Missouri locations.[21] In January/February 2025, QuikTrip entered Florida by opening a store in Jefferson County, Florida [22]
