Kwik Trip in June completed switching all of its stores to electronic shelf labels.
The conversion of all of the La Crosse, Wisconsin-based convenience-store chain’s labels took nine months, three months faster than anticipated, Kwik Trip spokesperson Ben Leibl told CSP. Kwik Trip has about 868 stores.
The first store was converted on Sept. 11, 2023, and the last store on June 13, 2024.
“We converted two stores per day, with each store taking about half a day to get things flipped over,” said Leibl, who added that the technology lets Kwik Trip make price changes remotely, “saving our coworkers time from having to manually do it at the stores.”
- Kwik Trip is No. 11 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
Each label contains a battery, which will last five to seven years, “But it really depends on how much you flip prices,” Leibl said. “The more you switch, the more it drains the battery.”
Leibl added that there isn’t any training required for store employees, as switching of prices “occurs from our headquarters and not at the stores.”
He added, “We’re thrilled to roll out electronic shelf labels at Kwik Trip. It has allowed us to increase our efficiency and accuracy while delivering the best experience to our guests every time they shop with us.”
Kwik Trip on July 10 held a groundbreaking ceremony for its second distribution center, which will be about 10 miles north of the state capitol in Madison in DeForest, Wisconsin.
The 280,000-square-foot facility will sit on a 150-acre parcel of land Kwik Trip bought earlier this year, said the La Crosse, Wisconsin-based company, which produces more than 80% of the products sold in its stores, supplied by its own bakery, commissary, dairy and distribution center.
Kwik Trip operates in Wisconsin, Minnesota and northern Michigan under the Kwik Trip name, and in Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota under the Kwik Star banner. Kwik Trip was recently named the best gas station brand in the United States for the fifth year in a row, according to the 2024 USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. The family-owned company has about 850 locations and is one of the biggest independently held c-store chains in the country.
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