The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Why can't they do this here?  Downtown?

http://atlanta.curbed.com/2016/3/11/11199972/quicktrip-midtown-atlanta-convenience-store (http://atlanta.curbed.com/2016/3/11/11199972/quicktrip-midtown-atlanta-convenience-store)

Had always hoped that QT would try this first in their hometown. Well, here's hoping it is a smashing success, since I figure that would bode well for Tulsa getting one in the future. I know Reasor's is putting in a store, but in general I have never thought downtown Tulsa needed a full service grocer. Corner bodega's and such are what will be needed once the roof count gets up a little more. I've always thought a Braum's market type store would be appropriate.

A few months ago I asked a friend of mine who works at QT HQ if they would please consider something like this for downtown Tulsa. He said "coincidentally, we're having a meeting about a concept design for something like that tomorrow." In hindsight I wonder if he was talking about the Atlanta store of if that's a hint that we, too, could be getting one soon. I can try to follow up.

Although it's a low bar, a functioning convenience store downtown would go a long way towards making it more livable. 

Downtown is great for now if you want to hit the bar.  But God help you if you want everyday essentials like a Slurpee and smokes.

Didn't they have gasless stores in the distant past? I could swear there was one on the North side of Sand Springs in the early 1980's that didn't have pumps. They eventually built a new store next to that one and the new one had pumps but I don't remember the original having pumps at all.

There was one on the Main Mall back in the 80s.

Did anyone read any of the comments on that article? They talk as if QT is just another 7/11 and "how would this compete with CVS"! I go to QT weekly along with a steady crowd of others while the CVS across the street keeps about 3 cars in the lot. I have never been to a 7/11 even remotely close to a QT. The comments also mention they wish a WaWa would come to Atlanta even though QT consistently beats WaWa out in best convenient store rankings.

I think many citizens everywhere have the grass-is-greener mindset and can't appreciate what we have. QT is the best convenient store chain I've been to. I know WaWa is close, but QT wins with their quick kitchens, hot food and drink selection. I've been to many urban Corner Stores around the country and world and I'd take an urban QT over the lot of them.

Lets hope we get one in downtown soon. This is a great idea and would be an immediate established place with steady business to create more foot traffic.

http://www.batesline.com/archives/2012/05/quiktrips-attempted-street-snatc.html

The QT on Main isn't a QT anymore, but I think it's still open as a convenience store. There also used to be a convenience store on the first floor of the 1st Place Tower, but that was closed last I knew.

Wish they could've done this at 36th & Peoria.  Across from TU would also be a good location as far as "outside downtown" locations.

They didn't put gas pumps in until 1971.  From '57 til then, they were just a store.

I've worked in downtown Bartlesville for years. There used to be a Conoco station (formerly company owned before they got out of that racket) a block or two south of the main COP campus downtown. It had a steady stream nearly all day of people walking down for drinks mainly and it was no where near the quality a QT is. When word came out they were destroying it, my first thought (hope) was that it was going to be a QT. It's now just more surface parking. There is now a Sonic literally across the street from where this station once stood that I'm sure stays busy as well. The margin on drinks is quit high and I'm sure a store like that could do fine even in as small of an area as Bartlesville is, let alone Tulsa. In fairness, during the daylight hours there is a pretty dense working population of roughly 5,000 people in a really small area, so it's not a tiny market.

You are also very right, that a QT would be a distinct upgrade from many urban corner stores. You would be going to a CVS for entirely different reasons than you would be going to a QT.

This is where QT was downtown.

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1521097,-95.990391,3a,57.5y,298.12h,85.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVtrFxPHAVAQ0fACVjOVcuQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en (https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1521097,-95.990391,3a,57.5y,298.12h,85.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVtrFxPHAVAQ0fACVjOVcuQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en)

I think one of their QT Kitchens without pumps would be a good addition down town. It's interesting about the 7-11's in the Atlanta area. I can't speak for those, but there are a large number in California and Oregon that are actually nice and staffed with people that English is not a second or third language for them, and in Oregon, the area that has prepared foods is not self service other than the condiments.

I do miss QT when I was living in Phoenix. People there had a similar attitude about QT when they first started opening stores, then they saw how much nicer they are compared to what Circle K had to offer, and because QT was so much better, it forced Circle K to remodel most all of their stores, and the new ones they built mimicked QT in almost every way.

Circle K version of a QT

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.2964228,-111.7554657,3a,75y,73.5h,92.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s896YIIRLLo_WCUs-j_hMkA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en (https://www.google.com/maps/@33.2964228,-111.7554657,3a,75y,73.5h,92.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s896YIIRLLo_WCUs-j_hMkA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en)

As pointed out above, there is a convenience store downtown on main street, though appears to close at 7.

I don't remember getting the same good vibes from the 7-11's in Chicago. They weren't terrible, just no where near the experience at a QT.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8857552,-87.6258367,3a,75y,19.18h,93.77t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGgarIm1zyNzPT3dFnSYVeg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 (https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8857552,-87.6258367,3a,75y,19.18h,93.77t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGgarIm1zyNzPT3dFnSYVeg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)

By the way, this is a parking garage. 3 store fronts in roughly 75 feet. Be nice to get the same kind of density here. Land is just too cheap apparently.

The convenience store that used to be a QT on Main? Also in a parking garage.

So much for the 'convenience'...

OnCue is a small chain out of Stillwater that seems to be growing fast - and one that QT had better be watching closely - they are doing similar things and have better drinks!!  I have commented on QT drinks in the past - they still are really a mixed bag...some are ok, but too many places are cutting the mix for whatever reason.  OnCue is more consistent store to store and never disappointing....as of this morning about 8:00 am.  When I leave Tulsa early, I will wait to get to OKC area to get drinks, since timing of that just doesn't matter to me....

Don't know what kind of commissary situation they have - but the breakfast stuff is probably just a little better than QT (neither is very good...) and the donut type items are the same.  They don't have the in-store kitchen thing yet in any that I have been to.

As for gas...hard to compare since they aren't together in any of the markets I go to yet, but OnCue is always extremely competitive in the OKC, Moore, Norman corridor.  Sometimes that is lower than Tulsa, sometimes higher.   I'm sure they will be competitive in Tulsa, too, when they get here.

Maybe they will come to downtown Tulsa...?



Edit;

They have beer caves!!

There's an On Cue in Cleveland by the lake, but it's kinda crappy.

Older one all right....they have been around for 50 years.  I haven't been to any that old...will have to check that one out next time I get to Cleveland.

Their web site claims they have been in business since 1966.  It makes me think this may have started as Jack Griffith’s Gas Up in Stillwater.

Some quick Googling seems to support this. 

Ahhh Jack Griffith's. When I first started to school at OSU they had a pizza delivery service that was a competitor to Pizza Shuttle. The best thing about ordering a pizza from them, because it certainly wasn't the pizza, was if you ordered a pizza/sandwich they would also deliver anything else the store sold. Need some cigarettes? No problem. Beer? Sure thing! It was great.

The pizza and sandwiches did suck though.

Loved Super Shuttle’s supreme with jalapeños.  Of course that’s drunken memories from 30+ years ago, so it probably wasn’t as great as I remember.

I've worked downtown for nearly 20 years and I think I've been in that convenience store on Main 3 or 4 times.

Smokes?  Really?  Please stay downwind.
 
 ;D

In Lawrence we called it Pizza Sh!ttle. $3 for a whole pizza worked though.

Everything's better with a layer of drunk on top!!

Was that Pizza Express?  I remember ordering both Pizza Shuttle and Pizza Express all the time because they were dirt cheap.

I hope they use the gasless QT in Atlanta as a model they can  bring to downtown Tulsa.

Reminiscing about old gas station food made me remember the QT sandwiches for $0.99 including the chicken teriyaki and provolone microwave sandwiches on bagel buns. Those were awesome. They also had others for only $1. During the summer, you could get a hearty meal (2 hot sandwiches) and a drink for less than $3. Now the microwave sandwiches are $3-$5 each so it would be about $9 for the equivalent.

I believe that was the name. Can't swear to it though as there have been too many years between then and now.

The power of monopoly and inadequate competition, for whatever reason, is readily apparent in Tulsa today, thanks to Quik-Trip gasoline prices.  And all the 'hanger's on' that are following the lead several weeks after the threat of gas supply disruption is long gone. 

$2.34 a gallon at QT, with the other area little guys hanging in there with them. 

In OKC area, I filled last Friday at $1.99.  Week before that it was $2.04.  (Today it is back up to $2.04.)

Collusion?   Price fixing?  Price gouging during an 'emergency'?

Does Oklahoma City have a special summer blend like we do to help with Ozone?

Yes. Tulsa and Oklahoma City both have most suppliers providing a summer blend with lower RVP voluntarily.

That blend season ended last week.

As much as I hate QT, it isn't like the Kum&Go, the Murphy Gas, the Costco gas or anyone else wants to keep up with the discounts in OKC.   I have no idea why there is such a price difference, but I have given up on laying all the blame on QT.


I also have to give QT credit for having some gas when we went to Dallas a couple of weeks ago (we won't talk about the raising of prices to gouge incentivize people to only buy what they needed.)   Most of the little stations were out.   QT still had some supply and lines around the block.

QT is the largest.  I would even bet that the rest combined aren't much more than QT alone - if as much.  If the 800 lb gorilla is gonna sit, so is everyone else.  No effective competition.

OKC has a lot of disruption going on between OnCue, 7-11, Love's, Valero.  More scrambling around for the dollar.


Even Siloam Springs and Fayetteville were running around $2.23 yesterday - I filled up there so didn't have to buy QT.

Don't get me wrong - I don't hate QT.  I buy from there probably about 55-60% of the time because of convenience to my local traffic patterns.  And it's always a little bit "comforting" to stop there in St Louis area - a little touch of home...    Kum & Go is getting the other 40% though.  And when I get snacks or fountain drinks, it's definitely Kum & Go.  QT soft drinks suck.

Gotta love Thornbrugh: "We simply disagree with the comments in the study."

(Therefore we aren't admitting that we monopolize the Tulsa gas market even though we do)

I was in NW Arkansas and Springfield, MO this past weekend.  Gas prices averaged 10 to 20 cents less per gallon.