QuikTrip's Newest Store to Replace Chain's First-Ever Location

TULSA, Okla. -- QuikTrip recently began construction on a new store just a few feet from the first-ever QuikTrip, opened in 1958, according to a Tulsa World report.

"We've wanted to build here for a long time, and we got a little ahead of ourselves," QuikTrip spokesman Mike Thornbrugh, who explained that the new location will replace the existing one about a half-mile to the north of it.

Chester Cadieux opened the first QuikTrip store on the southwest side of the intersection 54 years ago. His son Chet is now president and CEO of the privately owned chain.

QuikTrip purchased the seven-acre property, formerly the Camelot Motel, in 2007. It sold four acres of the site to the Oklahoma Central Credit Union 2009. While QuikTrip originally wanted to open the new store in 2008 as part of its 50th anniversary, the decision was made to delay construction due to years worth of roadwork at the intersection.

"We would have been losing money for years waiting for the congestion there to clear up," said Thornbrugh. "It was best just to wait."

The new location, expected to open in September, will be one of the company's "next-generation" models, with 3,500 square feet of store space and enough gas pumps for 20 vehicles to fuel up simultaneously, Thornbrugh told the news outlet. He also noted that the proximity to Interstate-44 gives the store higher visibility and much more traffic than a typical street location.

"It won't just be a neighborhood location; it will get a lot of travelers from the highway," said Thornbrugh.

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