How many times per month do you visit the Waldo Quik Trip?? It’s my preferred pit spot to fill up the gas tank, and grab a snack. It took years for QT corporate to take over the former Burger King location and build a new, expanded store for our community that opened in June. I stopped in recently to talk with store manager Tyler Zoeller and learned some quick facts about our new Quik Trip!
We started off talking about Tyler’s background with the company: he’s been an employee for the past 21 years, and became a store manager 5 years ago. Tyler lives in Waldo, and so do most of the employees at this location. “We try to hire people for the stores that live close by. They know the area and often know the customers, too–especially the regulars.” The neighborly philosophy comes from the corporate office: because Quik Trip is a privately held company, it invests more in it’s workforce instead of serving shareholders. Benefits include having its own medical insurance program–QT hires staff doctors so employees have fast access to health needs. They also offer profit sharing bonuses and emphasize promotion from within the company.. “Our first job is servicing customers; the second job is keeping our employees happy” says Tyler. They are always hiring, yet turnover is low because of the benefits and advancement opportunities. “Everyone who works here knows how to do every job in the store. And because we are a high volume store, shifts tend to go by quickly” says Tyler. Indeed, whenever I stop in, there is always a short line to check out at the register, with a couple of friendly staffers offering a sincere greeting and superfast service.
Here are a few of those fun facts I learned about this particular Quik Trip location:
*The kitchen food items they sell the most of: chicken tenders and wings. The chicken bacon ranch sub is also very popular.
*They sell A LOT of fountain drinks.
*Gas prices are changed at the corporate level, and software automatically makes the updates at each location.
*There are five massive underground fuel tanks beneath the building.
The busiest time of day is usually 11am-1pm.
*Although this store is larger than the previous one, they still carry the same selection of items. The aisles are wider, and the bathrooms–which are checked at least every hour–are larger. Customers appreciate the extra parking available to the side of the building to use when not buying gas.
The next time you stop in the Quik Trip–say hi to Tyler! He’s there almost every day, usually perched behind the counter or checking on the kitchen area. This Quik Trip, at 72cd St and Wornall, is open 24 hours, and is a welcome and useful addition to Waldo!
