Sallisaw will ‘have it all’ when QuikTrip opens
We’ve often been told you can’t have it all.
We’ve often been told you can’t have it all.
But Jake Barron, real estate manager for QuikTrip, begs to differ.
“You’ll have it all,” Barron said Wednesday when asked about the amenities Sallisaw’s new QuikTrip will offer.
“That store will be delivered to every day, so fresh salads, pastries, that type of stuff. We’ll have all the pizzas,” he told business and community leaders during the Sallisaw Chamber of Commerce monthly membership luncheon.
“One of the reasons QuikTrip has been so successful is our ability to adapt. Those stores are very, very, very high end as far as technology.”
Barron revealed that QT is cur- rently testing fryers in the Tulsa area in order to add apple pies, chicken strips, buffalo wings, etc. to store menus. “The food program, you’re going to like it.”
Sallisaw residents and travelers on I-40 and U.S. 59 will have the opportunity to decide how much they like food from the QT Kitchen, as well as all the fuel and convenience store amenities, when the Sallisaw location opens on March 6. Barron said there will also be a soft opening prior to the official opening, but didn’t specify when that might be.
Sallisaw’s QuikTrip is under construction at I-40 and U.S. 59. The store is expected to open on March 6.
QuikTrip has 1,100 stores 16 states, with most of the stores in the Tulsa metro area. The Sallisaw location will be the chain’s farthest east and south Oklahoma location. For now.
Founded in 1958, QT is today a $15 billion company that operates 1,100 stores in 16 states, with an additional 100 stores in development, including one in Roland, as well as in Chicago, Houston and northwest Arkansas.
“We’ve got a property under contract in Roland, which you’ll hear about in the next several months, I’m sure,” Barron revealed.
Barron credited persistent efforts by Sallisaw Economic Development Director George Bormann for QT committing to Sallisaw.
“These projects are not an overnight deal,” Barron told his audience. “George Bormann, God bless his soul, he called me about every week for about a year and a half just to touch base and to say, ‘Hey, man, we’re still here.’ And I’d say, ‘George, I know you are.’ To his credit, he really, really, really pushed, and he’s serving your city well.
“The interactions I’ve had with the city have been nothing but first class. They mean what they say and they do what they say. Over the last couple of years, we’ve gone from town to town, and this just feels a little different — the cooperation, the willingness to step up, the willingness to accept responsibility for your community — you guys ought to be really, really, really proud,” Barron said. Barron said location decisions are scrutinized by “three or four sets of eyes,” and that QT has an exhaustive checklist to ensure not only success for QT, but also for the community. “We make sure there aren’t any stones that haven’t been turned to make sure we know exactly what we’re getting into. It’s a huge investment to build one of these facilities. That store with our equipment and everything, it’s going to cost over $10 million when it’s all said and done. I don’t know how you make that back selling hot dogs and sodas, but it works, and it works because of our people,” Barron said.
“And more than anything, as stakeholders in the community, as business owners, managers, I can’t emphasize the importance it is to develop that culture, to earn the trust of those employees and to maintain that culture. It’s one thing for a boss to believe in their employees, you hear that a lot, but it’s a whole other thing for those employees to believe in that boss. And that’s something that QuikTrip has been successful in doing.
“There’s nothing more important to our company than our employees and the culture we provide and strive to continue into the future,” Barron said of QT’s 23,000 employees.
“I’m very passionate about QuikTrip, I’m very passionate about what we’re trying to do, the way we treat our people, the way we treat our customers. Every time we open a store, it creates another management position, creates three more assistant management positions, it creates 10 to 15 clerk jobs. So it’s a very, very, very important deal, and we’re very, very, very specific about what communities we want to grow in. We really want to make sure we’re a cultural fit,” Barron said.
Speaking informally and without documentation for reference, Barron said starting pay for clerks is “15 bucks, I believe.” Minimum age to work at QT is 16, and in addition to a full benefit package, QT offers a college tuition reimbursement program.
Barron said a contributing factor in locating a store in Sallisaw is what QT refers to as a remote store network.
“It’s providing interstate locations that are more travel center in nature — so think Pilot, think Love’s, TA, some of those deals — but not quite that big. We don’t offer some of the amenities that some of the over-theroad truckers have. We don’t do the showers, we don’t have large parking lots, we don’t have laundromats,” Barron explained. “It’s more of a place for those guys to get in, fuel up, get something to eat or drink and get back on the road. But it has expanded the territory and opportunities for me to perform my job, because now we’re looking in circles of about 250 to 300 miles of each one of our distribution centers located throughout the country.”