Retail Watchers

Just noticed a Maverik going in at Gene Autry/I-10 at the Palm Springs/Cathedral City/Desert Hot Springs exit.

Romr123 wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2024, 2:17 pm Just noticed a Maverik going in at Gene Autry/I-10 at the Palm Springs/Cathedral City/Desert Hot Springs exit.

That will be the first SoCal location. I don't see any more SoCal locations planned but surely there have to be more planned.

These so far are giant sites, quasi truck stops but no stopping (big truck fueling islands though, huge lots).
The initial CA location opened in Oroville.
Then another opened in West Sacramento.
And another in Orland.

They opened a smaller site in Anderson.

Their location choices in CA are... very interesting. I do not know many businesses that target places like Oroville, Orland, Anderson, for new locations. These North State places definitely are interesting choices.

They had a site they were working on in Sacramento (hard industrial area-Power Inn Road- sort of a dead area but I've seen Maverik do really well with this kind of site in other markets).

I think the Roseville/Rocklin site is under construction, it may be opening soon.

They have also entered Tucson with one site in Marana. I don't know what they are doing trying to go against Quik Trip. They are playing with fire.

storewanderer wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2024, 11:36 pm

Romr123 wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2024, 2:17 pm Just noticed a Maverik going in at Gene Autry/I-10 at the Palm Springs/Cathedral City/Desert Hot Springs exit.

That will be the first SoCal location. I don't see any more SoCal locations planned but surely there have to be more planned.

These so far are giant sites, quasi truck stops but no stopping (big truck fueling islands though, huge lots).
The initial CA location opened in Oroville.
Then another opened in West Sacramento.
And another in Orland.

They opened a smaller site in Anderson.

Their location choices in CA are... very interesting. I do not know many businesses that target places like Oroville, Orland, Anderson, for new locations. These North State places definitely are interesting choices.

They had a site they were working on in Sacramento (hard industrial area-Power Inn Road- sort of a dead area but I've seen Maverik do really well with this kind of site in other markets).

I think the Roseville/Rocklin site is under construction, it may be opening soon.

They have also entered Tucson with one site in Marana. I don't know what they are doing trying to go against Quik Trip. They are playing with fire.

I imagine the Inland Empire and the Imperial Valley, maybe San Diego are prime spots for Maveriks, also the Central Valley. Maverik seems to be building new sites along Freeways and major highways.

jamcool wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2024, 6:56 am

storewanderer wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2024, 11:36 pm

Romr123 wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2024, 2:17 pm Just noticed a Maverik going in at Gene Autry/I-10 at the Palm Springs/Cathedral City/Desert Hot Springs exit.

That will be the first SoCal location. I don't see any more SoCal locations planned but surely there have to be more planned.

These so far are giant sites, quasi truck stops but no stopping (big truck fueling islands though, huge lots).
The initial CA location opened in Oroville.
Then another opened in West Sacramento.
And another in Orland.

They opened a smaller site in Anderson.

Their location choices in CA are... very interesting. I do not know many businesses that target places like Oroville, Orland, Anderson, for new locations. These North State places definitely are interesting choices.

They had a site they were working on in Sacramento (hard industrial area-Power Inn Road- sort of a dead area but I've seen Maverik do really well with this kind of site in other markets).

I think the Roseville/Rocklin site is under construction, it may be opening soon.

They have also entered Tucson with one site in Marana. I don't know what they are doing trying to go against Quik Trip. They are playing with fire.

I imagine the Inland Empire and the Imperial Valley, maybe San Diego are prime spots for Maveriks, also the Central Valley. Maverik seems to be building new sites along Freeways and major highways.

We will see. I am wondering if the Kum & Go conversions will cause them to have their hands full.

These sites they are developing in CA, have been in their pipeline for a while now. I haven't heard of any additional potential new CA sites in months.

They should do very well with the locations they are opening. They are opening in some of the cheapest parts of the state, areas that still have pretty high amount of tobacco use, etc. However there are also some high volume Tribal gas stations up in that North State area who have very nice facilities and undercut on price for fuel and tobacco significantly due to their tax advantage, I am not sure how familiar Maverik is competing with those operations.

So far they seem to have rebranded Kum & Go in WY, CO, which were major markets for Kum & Go, and the couple of UT stores.

Back closer to core Kum & Go territory no rebranding has occurred however there are some changes.

The Kum & Go sites seem to have adopted the Maverik bakery program (which is odd, as I thought Kum & Go had a more extensive bakery program- the Kum & Go program certainly cost less than Maverik's 2.99 ?? EACH cookies, as I recall.

They have also combined promotions. So the promotional signs posted at Kum & Go, are actually Maverik promotion signs, with Maverik "adventure" style backgrounds. The 0.89 "up to large (with loyalty card at Kum & Go)" fountain promotion is interesting since a "large" at Kum & Go is 40oz and a "large" at Maverik is 30oz. This is the first time in all of my years traveling into Kum & Go territories that I have seen them do any sort of "promotion" on fountain drinks/cold tea during the summer (or at any time). So that is definitely a Maverik thing.

There are a few Maverik branded snacks at Kum & Go but most items are still Kum & Go branded. Including an alsle of Kum & Go branded accessories like t-shirts, hoodies, ping pong balls, and other random items selling at laughably high prices.

I am going to be curious if they proceed with rebranding the rest of Kum & Go or not. I have a bit of a different opinion now, I am not sure a rebranding is going to be a good idea nor do I think it will get them any return on investment. Competition is stiff with Casey's and in the larger areas Quik Trip and also the Kwik Trip/Kwik Star chain is extremely strong. These Kum & Go sites, the newer sites are quite nice, but they don't seem to do even close to the business of a Quik Trip or a Kwik Trip/Kwik Star.

At this point rather than rebranding they may want to just make everything in the stores like store brand items, cups, bags, etc. say Maverik, combine the two loyalty programs, but just not actually rebrand the stores. Kum & Go seems like it has worked hard to brand itself in various ways over the years and I am not sure throwing that brand equity away in these remaining markets is a good idea.

storewanderer wrote: ↑January 24th, 2024, 12:19 am

jamcool wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2024, 6:56 am

storewanderer wrote: ↑January 22nd, 2024, 11:36 pm

That will be the first SoCal location. I don't see any more SoCal locations planned but surely there have to be more planned.

These so far are giant sites, quasi truck stops but no stopping (big truck fueling islands though, huge lots).
The initial CA location opened in Oroville.
Then another opened in West Sacramento.
And another in Orland.

They opened a smaller site in Anderson.

Their location choices in CA are... very interesting. I do not know many businesses that target places like Oroville, Orland, Anderson, for new locations. These North State places definitely are interesting choices.

They had a site they were working on in Sacramento (hard industrial area-Power Inn Road- sort of a dead area but I've seen Maverik do really well with this kind of site in other markets).

I think the Roseville/Rocklin site is under construction, it may be opening soon.

They have also entered Tucson with one site in Marana. I don't know what they are doing trying to go against Quik Trip. They are playing with fire.

I imagine the Inland Empire and the Imperial Valley, maybe San Diego are prime spots for Maveriks, also the Central Valley. Maverik seems to be building new sites along Freeways and major highways.

We will see. I am wondering if the Kum & Go conversions will cause them to have their hands full.

These sites they are developing in CA, have been in their pipeline for a while now. I haven't heard of any additional potential new CA sites in months.

They should do very well with the locations they are opening. They are opening in some of the cheapest parts of the state, areas that still have pretty high amount of tobacco use, etc. However there are also some high volume Tribal gas stations up in that North State area who have very nice facilities and undercut on price for fuel and tobacco significantly due to their tax advantage, I am not sure how familiar Maverik is competing with those operations.

Morongo Casino has doubled the size of their gas operation. The new second station is designed like a 32 pump Costco operation with the "traffic signals" and everything, but they fail to enforce traffic entering the exit side and cutting the line plus creating absolute chaos when they try to exit. At times they have undercut every station in the state although right now they're back up to $3.99/gal for regular and jacked premium up to $4.59. By comparison Costco is $3.79 for regular in Huntington Beach right now. They were actually cheaper than gas from Arizona on the way back from my last road trip. I'm surprised more tribes aren't undercutting with their casino gas stations although I've heard there are a few tribal owned stations in far reaches of San Diego County that are also cheap. And yes, you see the smokers lined up to buy cheap cigarettes through the combination convenience store and slot machine room.

I know the tribal stations up in Washington where I used to live are certainly undercutting the other stations in the area. For example, the Tulalip Market station (former Chevron, a couple of years ago switched to unbranded fuel provided by a tribal supplier along with a lot of the other tribal stations in Washington) is selling regular for $3.50 right now, while a nearby Fred Meyer is at $3.70, and two nearby Shell stations in Marysville are at $4.56 and $4.70. Prices in Everett closer to where I lived seem to be more in the $4.20-4.30 range. That said, the Costco in Smokey Point actually beats them at $3.43, and the gas station at Angel of the Winds casino is at $3.36 (although it's well out of the way for anyone who isn't already going to the casino.)

I don't know what's happened up in Washington since we moved away, but I don't recall the gas prices varying as wildly as they seem to now. It used to be that you might see about $0.20-0.30 variation between different stations in different areas, but now wandering around the map I can find prices all the way from the $3.35 range all the way up to $4.95.