Sept. 20, 2023

The shelves are nearly stocked for the Sioux Falls area’s first Kwik Star location, which opens at 5 a.m. Thursday in Brandon.

The convenience store and gas station at the northwest corner of Holly Boulevard and Heritage Road gives a glimpse of what shoppers can expect as the Wisconsin-based retailer rapidly expands in the Sioux Falls area and beyond.

“We’ll open 14 stores in 14 months starting now,” district leader Joe Stortz said Wednesday as he surveyed the progress in Brandon.

From here, it’s on to openings in Sioux Falls — the first is in five weeks on 57th Street west of Sycamore Avenue — plus Harrisburg and Brookings, and in Minnesota with Kwik Trip stores in Pipestone and Luverne, along with a truck stop in Worthington that opens three weeks from now.

Kwik Star is the brand name used in South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. Locations in Wisconsin and Minnesota go by the original name of Kwik Trip.

“We’re the neighborhood grocery store that sells hot food, fried chicken, and we happen to have gas,” Stortz said. “That’s really what we are.”

His own career spans more than 30 years with the family-owned company. Many of the 17 people who transferred into the Sioux Falls area to take on store leadership roles hold more than a decade of experience.

And while this marks the first foray into the state, Brandon shoppers have been awaiting opening day and began to trickle in as soon as some barriers were taken down.

“Yesterday, we had some Glazers (doughnuts), so we spread the town with sweets, and pretty much everyone was really excited and knew who we were,” Stortz said.

The company embraces vertical integration. The doughnuts Stortz mentioned, along with the rest of the bakery offerings, are from a company-owned bakery and delivered fresh daily.

A company-owned dairy produces milk and cream for butter.

“From farm to cooler is 24 hours, and that’s how much milk we go through,” Stortz said. “Bread and buns packed today are on the truck tonight and here tomorrow.”

The volume and the ability to manage costs allows the company to offer value-driven pricing. Each four to eight weeks, different commodities are offered on sale. This week, for instance, shoppers will find a loaf of bread for 99 cents and a gallon of milk for $2.79.

Fruits and vegetables also are priced below the going market rate, he said.

“A lot of our pizzas and sandwiches are made in our own commissary,” Stortz added. “Our take-home meals, all that is packaged, and whatever is made today is in the stores tomorrow.”

The stores themselves are about 9,000 square feet, with pumps that allow 15 to 20 people to fuel up their vehicle at the same time, and they include a car wash.

There’s also a coffee and smoothie bar, plus snack-counter seating with phone-charging stations.

The Brandon store has a walk-in beer cooler, though that likely won’t be the case in all stores.

The emphasis on convenience and pricing makes Kwik Star stores especially good fits for underserved areas, including food deserts, Stortz said.

Shoppers currently can buy one dozen apples or oranges for $4.59, and fresh meat is a popular item.

“We sell raw hamburger, and a lot of it’s on sale,” he said. “We just had bacon-wrapped pork chops for $1.49.”

Kwik Star also brings a rare new 24-hour grocery option to the market. Since the pandemic and beginning before it, big-box stores such as Walmart and Hy-Vee have done away with overnight hours.

“We’ll have three to four (workers) overnight, and we do a $3-per-hour premium for overnights,” Stortz said. “You can come here and work at our store overnight, entry level, and make over $40,000 per year.”

Kwik Star heard from about 1,000 applicants and has hired nearly 280 for the stores opening in the Sioux Falls area, he said.

“I’d like to hire another 100 people by the end of the year,” Stortz said. “We’ve had a lot of interest.”

Pay is competitive, he said, and 40 percent of the company’s pre-tax dollars are returned to employees in the form of bonuses.

“Every co-worker gets around a 13 percent bonus every year; that’s 2.5 paychecks or six weeks of pay,” he said, adding he’s impressed with the quality of his local hires. The Brandon store has a 19-year-old woman running the kitchen.

“And she’s phenomenal, local, from Brandon and does a great job,” Stortz said. “We hired another young lady for a Sioux Falls store, she’s around 20 years of age, and we hired her in May, and she’s already a leader for us.”

Interested applicants can click here to search for job openings.

“It’s a lot more work in this convenience store, guaranteed, and our expectations are a lot higher,” Stortz said. “But we treat our people well.”

Next up: After East 57th Street opens later in October, Harrisburg will follow in two weeks and the store at 3310 N. Cliff Ave. will be two weeks after that. Stores at 41st Street and Grand Slam Avenue and at 32nd Street and Ellis Road are scheduled for December.

Stortz said he anticipates more stores in northwest and northeast Sioux Falls, a second in Harrisburg and one near the future 85th Street interchange for Interstate 29.