Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

This is the place for general and miscellaneous posts on topics which might extend past the boundaries of any specific region. No non-grocery posts.
mbz321
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 747
Joined: March 11th, 2010, 7:52 pm
Has thanked: 96 times
Been thanked: 54 times
Status: Offline

Re: Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

Post by mbz321 »

I have my hunch that EG is about to dump the Turkey Hill chain. There have been reports of their loyalty program not working for weeks and gift cards weren't able to be redeemed, and tons of complaints from employees about hours cut to the bone and stores were running out of basic supplies for things like coffee. Their website is also now suspiciously offline (all the other brands still work), but when it was up a coupe days ago, there was no mention of EG group or links to the other EG chains (although the other EG chains did have a link to the Turkey Hill page), and the content was quite out of date (Specials listed from November). Their Facebook content has been few and far between.

A vague Facebook page visitor post states that they are about to be bought out and rebranded as 'TH Mini Mart', but can't find anything more on that.

Here's a picture shared on Facebook too about 'system conversions' Image
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

Post by storewanderer »

Those signs about the loyalty being offline have been posted at Quik Stop for weeks now. I don't even know what is going on. I think it is something to do with their recent system upgrade to finally accept Chip Cards which are now accepted at both Turkey Hill and Quik Stop and I assume the other chains. Every time I go to Quik Stop I use a loyalty card and it has always worked.

I went to a Turkey Hill last week in PA. The store was stocked fully and it still had the full assortment of Turkey Hill items. It was an old site and not very pretty. Very much like the Quik Stops.

There is one Quik Stop in Sparks that got its gas price sign knocked out by the wind back in about January. It has still not been replaced. A few weeks ago they got a temporary sign out by the road to show gas prices again. The price was actually one of the best around so I stopped there. I went to the gas pumps and they all had the pay at the pump covered up and it said must pay inside. So you know that drill, at a busy 12 pump gas station, it took a while.

Quik Stop also has a .35 fee for PIN Debit but no fee for credit. With Chip cards the system defaults automatically to PIN Debit but the employees at Quik Stop are very friendly in advising customers how to run it as Credit and avoid the .35 fee. Well with the new Chip system when you insert a card that can go Debit the system defaults to that and asks if you want cash back to which you have to say no, then it asks for a pin. In order to go to Credit you have to press enter and not enter a pin (the screen does not tell you this, only the employee does). So it is a very slow process.

Anyway I stopped at that Sparks Quik Stop again this week and you can pay at the pump again but now there is a sign on the pumps that says Debit not accepted at Pump please pay inside. The hot dog roller grill was put out of service and there is a weird printed paper over the bun drawer that says "Thank you for your business."

So I am not sure the problems are just at Turkey Hill. These sites were struggling operationally even under Kroger the last year or so.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

Post by storewanderer »

Went to a second Quik Stop today here in NV with busted out price sign. Again from wind months ago and still not fixed. The entire site looks kind of rough. Weeds all over landscaping, etc. Not clear if they are responsible from landscaping or the property owner because there is a little strip mall adjacent and the landscaping there looks similar.

Also used Kroger loyalty card and it worked just fine (phone number) and came up with my current Kroger fuel reward discount amount or offered the 3 cents off if I did not want to use that. So they are clearly still connected to the Kroger loyalty system here. But the Quik Stops here kept giving fuel points on in-store purchases for a month or two after the ownership change too...

Well I just answered my own question as to who owns the property. It looks like Kroger owns it still...?

https://www.washoecounty.us/assessor/ca ... -06&Card=1
mbz321
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 747
Joined: March 11th, 2010, 7:52 pm
Has thanked: 96 times
Been thanked: 54 times
Status: Offline

Re: Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

Post by mbz321 »

Edit: The Turkey Hill URL now redirects to an EG page still showing Turkey Hill, but the address is now minitmarkets.com. Makes me think that at the very least, the Turkey Hill branding might be dropped in the future.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

Post by storewanderer »

mbz321 wrote: May 25th, 2019, 9:32 pm Edit: The Turkey Hill URL now redirects to an EG page still showing Turkey Hill, but the address is now minitmarkets.com. Makes me think that at the very least, the Turkey Hill branding might be dropped in the future.
Minit Mart is the chain they just bought from TA. https://www.ttnews.com/articles/travelc ... t-business

Odd the Turkey Hill page is using that name...

I wonder if there is some licensing issue with the Turkey Hill name now that Kroger doesn't own both the dairy and the c-stores...
jamcool
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1019
Joined: March 5th, 2009, 10:27 pm
Been thanked: 50 times
Status: Offline

Re: Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

Post by jamcool »

The Minit Mart stores are going to be rebranded EG America, it is unknown if the rest of the chains that EG owns will be rebranded. Apparently the rights to use the Kroger fuel center logo (the diamond logo) are going to EG.

Could Kroger be going to a new unified brand for its gas stations, or just keep the various store brands on them
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

Post by storewanderer »

jamcool wrote: June 12th, 2019, 10:05 am The Minit Mart stores are going to be rebranded EG America, it is unknown if the rest of the chains that EG owns will be rebranded. Apparently the rights to use the Kroger fuel center logo (the diamond logo) are going to EG.

Could Kroger be going to a new unified brand for its gas stations, or just keep the various store brands on them
Considering how Kroger "rebranded" the Smiths stations in my area that had both Smiths and Quik Stop logos on the pumps, it will be interesting to see what they do. A few months after the sale, they put duct tape (and not high quality duct tape...) over the Quik Stop logos (much of which has fallen off now).

At least EG Group with Quik Stop got big new "QuikStop" decals to span the pump skirt which are stuck on there really good to cover over the old Quik Stop and Smiths logos.

It makes sense the logo went with the c-stores since that logo was a symbol to represent one color from each of the old classic logos of those chains. I am curious why EG Group is rebranding Minit Mart; maybe they had to. Or maybe they recognized that Minit Mart was a largely useless brand that was a small regional chain bought out by TA and then haphazardly placed on numerous inconsistent and otherwise disjointed convenience stores that were pieced together through many acquisitions.

I do think some of the former Kroger c-store brands have some value with customers and I'm not sure a unified store name will accomplish much... the unified logo seems to accomplish the unification well.
TempoNick
Stock Clerk
Stock Clerk
Posts: 33
Joined: June 25th, 2017, 7:54 pm
Been thanked: 3 times
Status: Offline

Re: Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

Post by TempoNick »

EG is going with "EG America" on the Minit Mart stores. I don't know how that sounds ... Honey, I'm going down to the Circle K for some milk. "EG America" just isn't snappy-sounding enough.

Exxon, if they were smart, would use them as a vehicle to reintroduce Esso to the USA. EG is the largest Esso distributor in the EU.
pseudo3d
Posts: 3851
Joined: November 12th, 2015, 7:01 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 77 times
Status: Offline

Re: Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

Post by pseudo3d »

TempoNick wrote: July 18th, 2019, 9:28 pm EG is going with "EG America" on the Minit Mart stores. I don't know how that sounds ... Honey, I'm going down to the Circle K for some milk. "EG America" just isn't snappy-sounding enough.

Exxon, if they were smart, would use them as a vehicle to reintroduce Esso to the USA. EG is the largest Esso distributor in the EU.
Not sure how smart that idea is if they inherited a lot of junky stores that they haven't done much with in two years. :roll:
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Kroger May Sell Off Its Convenience Store Chains, Including Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill

Post by storewanderer »

pseudo3d wrote: July 27th, 2019, 8:45 pm
TempoNick wrote: July 18th, 2019, 9:28 pm EG is going with "EG America" on the Minit Mart stores. I don't know how that sounds ... Honey, I'm going down to the Circle K for some milk. "EG America" just isn't snappy-sounding enough.

Exxon, if they were smart, would use them as a vehicle to reintroduce Esso to the USA. EG is the largest Esso distributor in the EU.
Not sure how smart that idea is if they inherited a lot of junky stores that they haven't done much with in two years. :roll:
Probably isn't a very smart idea. EG America is probably the next Kangaroo Express if they keep up this "buy anything in sight" acquisition path. We lost Corner Store (though it was profitable... not bankrupt like Kangaroo Express) after a similar effort of "buying everything in sight." We will see if they even get this EG America banner rolled out to all locations. It may be TA is keeping Minit Mart for its truck stop c-stores (one of the Sparks, NV TA sites has the Minit Mart branding) so they have to do a banner conversion. Note they did not commit to using EG America on other operations at this time, just the Minit Marts.

The thing is the Kroger c-stores ran pretty high fuel and store volumes (especially for their size and age). Minit Marts were primarily straight junk; low volume operations with a variety of (high priced) fuel brands and low store volumes, reject sites from other operators who went bankrupt, etc.

Thing is these EG Stores are screwed up. One store here in Sparks got its price sign knocked out in a wind storm during the first quarter and the price sign remains knocked out to this day almost six months later. The loyalty program they launched with EG Cards appears to have stopped accumulating after 6/1 and you have to redeem by 7/31 anything accumulated (nothing was accumulating much of the second quarter since the system was always down...) and then you lose all accumulation again.

I really wish Kroger had kept its c-stores.
Post Reply