QuikTrip grows travel center concept in South Carolina

Dive Brief:

Convenience retailer QuikTrip is continuing its rapid expansion of remote travel centers across the U.S., having opened a new location June 15 in Dillon, South Carolina, according to a report from WPDE ABC15 in Myrtle Beach.
The Dillon location is QuikTrip’s 12th remote travel center in South Carolina, where it operates around 70 stores in total, according to the retailer’s website. It is also QuikTrip’s easternmost travel center in the U.S. to date.
Since debuting its remote travel center concept in 2020, QuikTrip has now opened 94 of these locations and continues to increase the competition with major travel-center players, such as Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Pilot and TravelCenters of America.

Dive Insight:

While QuikTrip has announced remote travel center expansions in areas like Missouri and Tennessee, South Carolina is quietly becoming one of its biggest markets for these types of locations. Only Texas, with 30 sites, has more remote travel centers than South Carolina, according to QuikTrip’s website.

Besides South Carolina, Texas, Missouri and Tennessee, other states that have at least one QuikTrip travel center include Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and Mississippi. QuikTrip is also set to build a location in Kansas.

QuikTrip did not respond by press time to an inquiry for details on its new remote travel center in Dillon.

Like QuikTrip’s other remote travel centers, the Dillon location features a larger lot, bigger store and an expanded QT Kitchens, according to the report. At around 8,200 square feet, QuickTrip’s remote travel centers are much larger than its regular locations, which range from 4,100 to 5,700 square feet, a spokesperson previously said.

QuikTrip’s created its travel center concept for highly traveled areas of the country that are also near a QT Distribution Center, allowing for quick access to fresh food. QuikTrip’s distribution centers are located in Atlanta; Dallas; Kansas City, Missouri; Phoenix; and Tulsa.

Tulsa, Oklahoma-based QuikTrip operates around 1,000 c-stores in 17 states.