CHICAGO — Circle K in September opened a location kitty-corner from Chicago’s Lane Tech High School and in the process became a corporate sponsor of Friends of Lane, a parent-driven organization supporting the school.
With more than 4,300 students, Lane Tech is the largest high school in Chicago and second largest public school in Illinois.
This convenience store (pictured) on the city’s North Side is the first of Circle K’s new urban convenience stores, Friends of Lane said in its newsletter.
Circle K, owned by Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard, said it plans to open several more Chicago locations before the end of the year. It recently opened a location in Chicago’s Loop, the central business district.
While Circle K’s store-network development is focused on standalone sites along highways and major thoroughfares where it can provide the “full Circle K experience,” including fresh food and beverages and traditional convenience merchandise, fuel and car wash services, there are a few markets where it has opened in smaller ground-floor urban storefronts, Chris Barnes, Circle K’s director of communications, told CSP.
- Alimentation Couche-Tard is No. 2 on CSP’s 2022 Top 202 ranking of the largest U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
“We’re always looking for ways to meet our customers where they are both in terms of our store network development and optimization,” Barnes said. “In Chicago, as the downtown real estate market has evolved, we saw an opportunity to secure some space in a number of great locations. Our offerings and programs there are tailored to meet the needs of walk-in customers who live, shop and work in that area. They’re roughly half the size of our usual locations.”
According to Friends of Lane, becoming a corporate sponsor offers a business benefits including:
- Promoting a positive brand and enhancing the customer experience.
- Reaching more than 9,000 people via the group’s newsletter.
- Getting promoted to the school community via emails, social media, street banners, event banners, programs and more.
- Getting listed on the Friends of Lane website with a link to the company’s page.
- Receiving a “We Support Lane” window cling for the business—or eButton for website.
The location, about 1,900 square feet, offers a wide assortment appealing to students, such as chips, candy, nuts, beef jerky, bakery items, energy and sports drinks and carbonated soft drinks.
A good number of students shop before and after school as well as during lunch periods, a clerk told CSP.
The store has 11 cold vault doors with energy drinks, sports drinks, soda, water, milk, juice and tea. Three more cooler doors include ice cream, frozen pizza and ice. A grab-and-go area includes nachos, pretzels, burgers, apple pies, chicken sandwiches, Tornados and more. There’s also a coffee and tea bar, roller grill and pizza warmer, a small selection of dog food, condiments, cereal and cleaning supplies—and an ATM. It does not sell alcohol.