Page 1 of 1

Circle K Selling 17 Arizona stores, closing 12 in Phoenix area

Posted: May 26th, 2022, 7:29 am
by arizonaguy
https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/new ... 0to%20sell.

Here's the list of the Phoneix area stores to close / be sold:

4402 E. Washington St., Phoenix
6322 N. 12th St., Phoenix
1440 W. Bell Road, Phoenix
4249 W. Bell Road, Phoenix
13828 N. 35th Ave., Phoenix
10625 N. 19th Ave., Phoenix
802 S. Hardy Drive, Tempe
1010 W. Southern Ave., Tempe
6305 W. Maryland Ave., Glendale
4648 W. Bethany Home Road, Glendale
9002 N. 47th Ave., Glendale
1016 S. Litchfield Road, Goodyear

This is a rather eclectic list of mostly 30 - 40+ year old stores that are either low volume, far from major intersections, in questionable areas, or a combination of the above.

Re: Circle K Selling 17 Arizona stores, closing 12 in Phoenix area

Posted: May 26th, 2022, 7:50 pm
by jamcool
The store in Goodyear is an unremodeled classic 60s Circle K-upswept roof with exposed beams, large glass storefront.

Re: Circle K Selling 17 Arizona stores, closing 12 in Phoenix area

Posted: May 26th, 2022, 11:21 pm
by storewanderer
Circle K seems to do this pruning every year where they offer single stores for sale. I am surprised more pruning isn't being done in places like Kansas (the stores they got from Kangaroo there are total trash) but they have done some unpublished deals where they sell strings of stores off to other operators like OKC to Casey's and these other deals where some stores in LA etc. are sold and being rebranded to Kangaroo Express from Circle K.

I am a bit surprised to see two WA locations being sold. Circle K corporate recently bought a string of stations from ARS Fresno (an old Shell and Tesoro multi-site operator doing business as "Porter's") in mostly smaller OR/WA markets after selling off the few corporate Circle Ks around Portland and Seattle areas to 7-Eleven a couple years ago (these were in secondary locations like there was one in Kent, some in Salem, etc.). The ARS Fresno sites sold primarily Shell or Mobil fuel (or "Porter's fuel) and were all unceremoniously debranded promptly. Circle K corporate made a purchase of some station operator in the Kennewick, WA market 10-15 years ago (runs Exxon branded fuel) which was an odd island of locations for them in the Pacific Northwest that they were otherwise largely absent from.

ARS Fresno continues to operate the Speedway Express sites in Oregon and part of Western Washington, and some stuff in CA. Not the best operator anymore. They used to be better. They were stripped of a lot of sites in CA/UT when those got taken from them and converted to corporate Speedway sites.

Re: Circle K Selling 17 Arizona stores, closing 12 in Phoenix area

Posted: May 27th, 2022, 8:27 am
by SamSpade
storewanderer wrote: May 26th, 2022, 11:21 pm I am a bit surprised to see two WA locations being sold. Circle K corporate recently bought a string of stations from ARS Fresno (an old Shell and Tesoro multi-site operator doing business as "Porter's") in mostly smaller OR/WA markets ...

ARS Fresno continues to operate the Speedway Express sites in Oregon and part of Western Washington, and some stuff in CA. Not the best operator anymore. They used to be better.
Where did you see the NW sale sites?
Off Topic
I am sorry to read that Porter's is gone. Porter's stations on the Oregon coastline were frequently the lowest cost fuel and in some cases even lower than Willamette Valley area stations (!). The Speedway Expresses I've seen are just awful, why would they want to keep those?

Re: Circle K Selling 17 Arizona stores, closing 12 in Phoenix area

Posted: May 27th, 2022, 11:57 pm
by storewanderer
SamSpade wrote: May 27th, 2022, 8:27 am
storewanderer wrote: May 26th, 2022, 11:21 pm I am a bit surprised to see two WA locations being sold. Circle K corporate recently bought a string of stations from ARS Fresno (an old Shell and Tesoro multi-site operator doing business as "Porter's") in mostly smaller OR/WA markets ...

ARS Fresno continues to operate the Speedway Express sites in Oregon and part of Western Washington, and some stuff in CA. Not the best operator anymore. They used to be better.
Where did you see the NW sale sites?
Off Topic
I am sorry to read that Porter's is gone. Porter's stations on the Oregon coastline were frequently the lowest cost fuel and in some cases even lower than Willamette Valley area stations (!). The Speedway Expresses I've seen are just awful, why would they want to keep those?
There is a NRC website with the Circle K sale.

ARS Fresno doing business as Porter's was run a lot better 10-15 years ago than they have been run the past 5 or so years... I think when Tesoro took so many stations away from them, their operation and general attitude really deteriorated. Also ARS Fresno had no say in those stations losing Mobil branding and shifting to Speedway Express branding but my suspicion is a Mobil station is a much more sought after gas station than "Speedway Express" is. So that branding change further hurt ARS Fresno by driving fewer customers to the stations they did get to keep. Porter's is still running the OR Speedway Express units and some of the WA ones... they are just awful and they are Porter's current state.

Re: Circle K Selling 17 Arizona stores, closing 12 in Phoenix area

Posted: May 29th, 2022, 8:27 am
by Alpha8472
Mobil gas is much more popular than Speedway especially in areas out West where Speedway is unknown. People trust the big brands such as Chevron or Shell. Mobil has about the same brand recognition.

When the Mobil stations near me rebranded to Speedway, the customer counts dropped by about 80 percent. The Speedway prices for gas are lower than most other brands, but for some reason people don't trust Speedway gas.

Mobil stations had some of the coolest looking lighting. The stations looked modern with the lit up electric blue gas canopies. It really caught the eye and attracted attention. Speedway decor is just ugly red stripes on a gas canopy.

In the San Francisco Bay Area I notice that many Circle K stores are not 24 hours. They close at around 10 even though the Exxon or Shell gas is still sold 24 hours. Is this common?

Re: Circle K Selling 17 Arizona stores, closing 12 in Phoenix area

Posted: May 29th, 2022, 11:13 am
by storewanderer
Alpha8472 wrote: May 29th, 2022, 8:27 am

In the San Francisco Bay Area I notice that many Circle K stores are not 24 hours. They close at around 10 even though the Exxon or Shell gas is still sold 24 hours. Is this common?
All of those bay area Circle Ks are franchise operations so I guess they basically do whatever they want.

The only corporate Circle K in the bay area is in San Rafael. There are also some down by Salinas. A new one is under construction in American Canyon. The corporate Circle Ks are very weak operationally in NorCal. There are some around Sacramento also; Davis, Yuba City, Willow. I think Red Bluff may have been sold to a franchisee. I don't think it is a focus market for them with corporate stores, but they are looking to build a few new stores, so that may change.

For years in Fresno there was just one corporate Circle K, in a terrible neighborhood. Then a couple years ago they built a new one in a different part of town (also not a great part of town but better than the other one). I find it interesting they will build new units in places where they basically have no presence. They may see having a few corporate stores around a way to help keep the brand in the market and potentially sell franchise units. But Circle K seems to not be very focused on selling franchise units, they actually seem to be doing the opposite. They seem to be reviving Kangaroo Express and On The Run as banners to use on franchise stores that are basically Circle Ks but not called Circle K.