arizonaguy wrote: ↑February 22nd, 2024, 6:04 am
storewanderer wrote: ↑February 8th, 2024, 11:30 am
They should have done this a while ago.
Maverik hasn't built many locations there and hasn't done overly well. They have a couple very high performing locations though.
One of those very high performing Maverik units is at the next exit from this first QT. However the Maverik is extremely well positioned for warehouse traffic. The QT, not so much.
Circle K has been aggressively adding locations and so is Terrible Herbst.
The Circle K units are high traffic.
Terrible Herbst is really low traffic and they survive on gaming revenue and extremely high gas and store pricing. The Terrible Herbst stores are very very nicely finished inside (they spend a lot of money on flashy signs, nice tile work, and such).
There is a Shell operator called Green Valley Grovery owned by an investment group and also has been rapidly adding units and they follow a similar strategy to Terrible Herbst.
7 Eleven has also been building a few new stores.
AMPM is completely stagnant and shrinking.
Rebel (Anabi) is a mess of old stores, some Arcos, some unbranded, some they've even added 7 Eleven stores to. Just a mess. In the 90s Rebel with 76 at the time ran by far the highest volume units in the market and grew into the 00s..
The gas station field is very crowded in Las Vegas. QT should have done this expansion sooner. It will probably still work out but it will be more challenging to pick up the right sites.
I spent some time in Vegas over the last few days (mostly the non-touristy areas) and did observe this. It's a far cry from Phoenix where it's essentially high volume Circle K / high volume QT and a bunch of low volume independents with a few AMPMs and Minute Marts sprinkled in.
Terrible's gas pricing was, well, Terrible. I guess it's a good deal if you get a car wash with it (a lot of their locations had car washes) but otherwise, oof. Also it appeared that traffic in those stores was non-existent. I guess insane pricing will do that.
Rebel seemed to be the most common non Terrible Herbst operator and they looked a lot like Circle K did in Phoenix before QT entered the market with their random stores of various ages and conditions. Quick Trip entering Phoenix was great as it forced Circle K to up their game (Circle K has replaced dozens of older sites with new larger sites with better offerings).
The problem in Las Vegas is that there didn't seem to be a number of viable sites that don't already have an existing operator on them.
It will be interesting to see how Quik Trip handles the real estate situation in Las Vegas. To get sites as large as they need, they will need to put multiple parcels together. I'm watching their Denver build out; it is moving along... Chicago is going a lot slower... I think the situation in Chicago is similar to Las Vegas as far as finding sites.
Maverik entered Reno around the same time as Las Vegas and has more stores in Reno area than they have around Las Vegas. From what I see of Maverik in Las Vegas their sites are mixed performance-wise.
There are odd sections of Las Vegas with varying situations. I was surprised when I stayed up in the NW Corner of Las Vegas, there was no Circle K anywhere up there... they were just like missing from an entire slice like 1/6 of NW Las Vegas metro that has quite a bit of new development.
I also think had Speedway stayed an independent company they would have acquired Rebel as Anabi Oil is heavily involved with Marathon, and all of those would have converted into Speedway sites.
Then if you go down to SW Las Vegas there is a stretch of Blue Diamond that has like 2 less than 2 year old Circle Ks and a third Circle K that is less than a decade old.
Rebel (all are former 76 sites; 76 terminated its branding agreement with Rebel and left Nevada at one point entirely it appears they had to do that to get away from Rebel, notice they returned... read between the lines on that...) has been a mess; when Anabi bought Rebel (after the 76 termination), they got with Tesoro (Marathon now) for fuel and converted a bunch of sites to Arco and were cash/debit fee only and that obviously did not work well at all in a market full of tourists. Then they started to accept credit in the store but not for fuel- again- did not work well in a market full of tourists. Now Rebel at least accepts credit again but their locations seem neglected, some have converted to having 7-11 branding... just a mess. I'd take the Terrible stores over Rebel any day. Rebel even under Anabi Oil is a terrible operator. I am not sure when the last time Rebel/Anabi built a new store in Las Vegas was, or if they've built any new stores... I think they've taken over some other old run down sites.
Then some areas you see some 7-Elevens including some new less than 3 year old 7-Elevens. There are also about 5 Speedways (all former Albertsons stations) and maybe 10 Maveriks.