Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

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Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

Post by storewanderer »

Man... Circle K is buying things up faster than they can integrate.
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Re: Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

Post by rwsandiego »

Maybe they can buy a design/build firm to fix up some of their existing stores and a security firm to clean out some of the riffraff. Man, some of their Phoenix stores are naaaaaaaaaasty.
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Re: Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

Post by Super S »

When I lived in Boise in the 1980s, Circle K had a number of neighborhood stores which they remodeled. At the time they were nice for convenience stores. These days they are just another overpriced store that does nothing to stand out. I think most convenience stores in general fall in this category...I agree many need to invest in maintaining their existing stores.
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Re: Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

Post by storewanderer »

They are supposedly doing a network optimization that will be intended to prune some of those questionable stores... problem in Phoenix is there are so many of them... almost hard to be in a given location physically in Phoenix, and not be within eyesight of at least one questionable Circle K.

When Tosco sold off Circle K, most of the "nice" locations in the west were not sold to Circle K, but retained, and ultimately after being corporate owned by ConocoPhillips 76/Circle Ks, then sold to Pacific Oil and Convenience, then sold to United Oil, and over time many of those have surrendered the Circle K brand, and Pacific sold a block of locations to 7-Eleven at one point too. But Circle K did get stores for itself in those markets that the oil company did not retain (CA, OR, WA) but they were mostly really old ratty stores with 0-2 gas pumps, or just lousy performing larger locations.

Based on what I've seen in my travels, Circle K has a ton of pruning to do with Kangaroo Express... some really bad entire markets there... locations in poor condition, with tiny c-stores in the middle of the gas pumps, which I find it hard to believe it will be worth their while to keep. Business is very slow. Corner Store is a different situation, as their stations were generally well kept and well maintained, even if smaller, and they did a lot of "self pruning" the past few years, but they still have a number of smaller locations with the small store in the middle of the gas pumps. I don't know anything about Holiday Station Stores but based on what I've seen online they look like they are promising also.

Maybe Circle K is starting to get a little more picky about what they buy?
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Re: Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

Post by arizonaguy »

storewanderer wrote:They are supposedly doing a network optimization that will be intended to prune some of those questionable stores... problem in Phoenix is there are so many of them... almost hard to be in a given location physically in Phoenix, and not be within eyesight of at least one questionable Circle K.

When Tosco sold off Circle K, most of the "nice" locations in the west were not sold to Circle K, but retained, and ultimately after being corporate owned by ConocoPhillips 76/Circle Ks, then sold to Pacific Oil and Convenience, then sold to United Oil, and over time many of those have surrendered the Circle K brand, and Pacific sold a block of locations to 7-Eleven at one point too. But Circle K did get stores for itself in those markets that the oil company did not retain (CA, OR, WA) but they were mostly really old ratty stores with 0-2 gas pumps, or just lousy performing larger locations.

Based on what I've seen in my travels, Circle K has a ton of pruning to do with Kangaroo Express... some really bad entire markets there... locations in poor condition, with tiny c-stores in the middle of the gas pumps, which I find it hard to believe it will be worth their while to keep. Business is very slow. Corner Store is a different situation, as their stations were generally well kept and well maintained, even if smaller, and they did a lot of "self pruning" the past few years, but they still have a number of smaller locations with the small store in the middle of the gas pumps. I don't know anything about Holiday Station Stores but based on what I've seen online they look like they are promising also.

Maybe Circle K is starting to get a little more picky about what they buy?
I'd be interested to see how that "network optimization" works for them. To be honest, they do have a decent number of nicer stores (and the number is growing). They closed a dumpy store near me and moved to a new build store across the street.

The integration of Corner Store will be interesting. The vast majority of Corner Store locations are very close to existing Circle K stores and the majority of the stores in Arizona are ex-Diamond Shamrock stores with a small c-store in the middle of gas pumps.

If you want to be guaranteed a ratty, nasty store in Arizona, go to a 7-Eleven. I don't believe that they've opened any new stores since the early-mid 1990s and none of the stores seem to have been updated in any noticeable way since then.

QT is by far the "premium" C-store in the Phoenix area and they generally have consistently nice stores. There's another chain, Giant that has nice c-stores in Arizona but they have avoided the Phoenix area (except for one store in Chandler).
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Re: Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

Post by wnetmacman »

arizonaguy wrote:I'd be interested to see how that "network optimization" works for them. To be honest, they do have a decent number of nicer stores (and the number is growing). They closed a dumpy store near me and moved to a new build store across the street.

The integration of Corner Store will be interesting. The vast majority of Corner Store locations are very close to existing Circle K stores and the majority of the stores in Arizona are ex-Diamond Shamrock stores with a small c-store in the middle of gas pumps.

If you want to be guaranteed a ratty, nasty store in Arizona, go to a 7-Eleven. I don't believe that they've opened any new stores since the early-mid 1990s and none of the stores seem to have been updated in any noticeable way since then.

QT is by far the "premium" C-store in the Phoenix area and they generally have consistently nice stores. There's another chain, Giant that has nice c-stores in Arizona but they have avoided the Phoenix area (except for one store in Chandler).
We have two chains here (Corner Store and Cracker Barrel) that are in the process of being assimilated into Circle K. The Cracker Barrel stores were of two varieties: the older, unremodeled stores, or brand new palaces. The new stores are getting the red carpet treatment, but the old ratty stores haven't been touched.

The same goes for the Corner Stores. We had one that I thought for sure was going to be refused because it is across the street from a Circle K. I drove past most of them over the weekend, and the ominous 79 cent drink signage (the first sign of the assimilation) was up on all of them, including the one I just mentioned.

I can't see how this can be sustained. I was in Covington, LA a couple of weeks ago. Just north of I-10 on US 190, there are THREE Circle K stores at the same intersection: Two Shell Pumper stations (full canopy over a small store), and a former Exxon On The Run store, all rebranded as Circle K. In this area, there are also several Kangaroo stations still holding the Kangaroo/Kangaroo Express signage, but operating as Circle K, and the Cracker Barrel stores as well.

When does it end?
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Re: Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

Post by pseudo3d »

arizonaguy wrote:
storewanderer wrote:They are supposedly doing a network optimization that will be intended to prune some of those questionable stores... problem in Phoenix is there are so many of them... almost hard to be in a given location physically in Phoenix, and not be within eyesight of at least one questionable Circle K.
Probably the gas pump-less "Strange Things are Afoot at the" Circle K in the Phoenix area will likely cease to exist in the near future...

arizonaguy wrote: The integration of Corner Store will be interesting. The vast majority of Corner Store locations are very close to existing Circle K stores and the majority of the stores in Arizona are ex-Diamond Shamrock stores with a small c-store in the middle of gas pumps.
Between Diamond Shamrock and Valero, the gas station-less Stop N Go stores they acquired in the mid-1990s were all closed or sold off, leaving only Corner Store, which was gas station-anchored (it seems Corner Store was once Diamond Shamrock's generic C-store, and thus never had any stand-alone stores, though it started coming into its own in the early 2000s). I'm sure if CST Brands continued to go on as a separate company, the small "store in the middle of the pumps" at Diamond Shamrock-turned-Valero stores would have been eliminated as well.
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Re: Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

Post by jamcool »

Giant is/was owned by Western Refining, who also owns SuperAmerica in the Upper Midwest (where Holiday also operates). Western and Tesoro just merged to form a new company called Andeavor. Tesoro bought the ARCO fuel brand and operations in SoCal and AZ from BP, along with the license for the AM-PM chain in those markets (BP still owns the ARCO stations in NoCal, WA, and OR and the AM-PM brand itself). There are a large number of AM-PM stores in the Phx area, many are franchised. It will be interesting to see if Andeavor combines the Giant and ARCO stores in AZ under one banner.
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Re: Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote:Between Diamond Shamrock and Valero, the gas station-less Stop N Go stores they acquired in the mid-1990s were all closed or sold off, leaving only Corner Store, which was gas station-anchored (it seems Corner Store was once Diamond Shamrock's generic C-store, and thus never had any stand-alone stores, though it started coming into its own in the early 2000s).
That's correct; Corner Store was a Diamond Shamrock creation in the early 80's to swing what was then Shamrock into the C-Store business. Shamrock was what was referred to as an early discounter, foregoing service for just selling a lot of gas. Most of the stations were a row of pumps with an office behind, though Shamrock was an early truck stop pioneer throughout Texas and New Mexico. When the old line discounters began to fade away (think Billups, Imperial and others), DS started developing the brand throughout the south, expanding a pretty good distance east before selling out to Valero. Valero wasn't interested in being a C-Store operator, so they spun it off into CST Brands, which had a pretty good growth going on before the sellout to Circle K.
pseudo3d wrote:I'm sure if CST Brands continued to go on as a separate company, the small "store in the middle of the pumps" at Diamond Shamrock-turned-Valero stores would have been eliminated as well.
I don't know; in the early 2000's pruning, all the non-pumper units like these were closed in favor of the pumpers. Only when they acquired the Albertsons Express stores did they start going back to the full size store, and they haven't built a pumper since. But they haven't replaced too many either, and none in my area.
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Re: Circle K acquiring Holiday Station Stores

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Between Diamond Shamrock and Valero, the gas station-less Stop N Go stores they acquired in the mid-1990s were all closed or sold off, leaving only Corner Store, which was gas station-anchored (it seems Corner Store was once Diamond Shamrock's generic C-store, and thus never had any stand-alone stores, though it started coming into its own in the early 2000s).
That's correct; Corner Store was a Diamond Shamrock creation in the early 80's to swing what was then Shamrock into the C-Store business. Shamrock was what was referred to as an early discounter, foregoing service for just selling a lot of gas. Most of the stations were a row of pumps with an office behind, though Shamrock was an early truck stop pioneer throughout Texas and New Mexico. When the old line discounters began to fade away (think Billups, Imperial and others), DS started developing the brand throughout the south, expanding a pretty good distance east before selling out to Valero. Valero wasn't interested in being a C-Store operator, so they spun it off into CST Brands, which had a pretty good growth going on before the sellout to Circle K.
pseudo3d wrote:I'm sure if CST Brands continued to go on as a separate company, the small "store in the middle of the pumps" at Diamond Shamrock-turned-Valero stores would have been eliminated as well.
I don't know; in the early 2000's pruning, all the non-pumper units like these were closed in favor of the pumpers. Only when they acquired the Albertsons Express stores did they start going back to the full size store, and they haven't built a pumper since. But they haven't replaced too many either, and none in my area.
From existing evidence, Diamond Shamrock did the initial start of Corner Store becoming its own brand, where they had a new pentagon-shaped (similar but not identical to Albertsons Express signage) red "Corner Store" signage (without the DS logo on the sign), and under Valero that just became the first Valero Corner Store signage, with the Valero "V" with "cornerstore" written below it. Corner Store pre-Valero, Corner Store post-Valero. Note that these are not the same store but the same prototypes. It seems that with maybe a few exceptions, the Valero conversion in the mid-2000s expunged the Stop N Go name, though most of the Stop N Go stores that didn't have stations were closed (probably because at least in Houston, these were very old stores, as Stop N Go had bought both Circle K and 7-Eleven out of the market).
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