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Old 10-21-2014, 11:16 AM
 
57,022 posts, read 35,011,144 times
Reputation: 18824

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Don't know how many of you have shopped at a QT store given your locations, but i use them exclusively when there's one in the area.

Very nice, very clean, and the variety of snacks and drinks...along with some fruits and other miscellaneous items is actually kinda dizzying given the size of their stores. Some even have a grill in back, and the stuff they serve isn't half bad.

I've noticed that it seems a tad pricier than other similar chains, but i'm more than willing to pay a few cents more for the cleanliness and variety of merchandise stocked...especially the soft drinks. And the staff is extremely professional.

I started frequenting these stores after i read a 2011 piece on how well they pay and treat their employees. But i noticed that the piece seemed to have at least a small degree of skepticism relative to how long such a business model could last.

Well here we are in 2014, and the company is doing just as well if not better. Here's an excerpt from the piece:

Quote:
QuikTrip is an especially inspiring example of the possible. Convenience stores with gas stations are not exactly high-end retailers, and yet QuikTrip has spent more than a decade among Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for. Employees there start with typically low retail salaries, but can quickly win raises. Ms. Ton focuses on one store manager, a woman with a high school diploma, who was earning more than $70,000 after several years, which is about average at QuikTrip for her tenure. “There is no other company,” this woman said, “who will pay you your regular wage, a customer service bonus, a profit bonus and even an attendance bonus.”

On the one hand, QuikTrip’s formula is a simple one: treat employees with care and respect, and they’ll do the same with customers. In turn, those customers not only become loyal, but also recommend the store to others. Sure enough, QuikTrip’s per square foot sales are 50 percent higher than the industry average, Ms. Ton writes, and its gas sales are twice as high. The employee turnover rate is 13 percent, she says, compared with 59 percent for the top quartile of the convenience store industry.
Wow...imagine that. Sounds SO COMPLICATED, right? Have a clean and courteous business with good products and a well trained staff... Treat employees well, pay them a good wage with the promise of more opportunities ahead, and they'll be loyal, won't turnover very often, thereby saving you money and making you profitable.

Yeah i know..."these people are unskilled and should realize that these are entry level jobs and these profits should be returned to stockholders blah, blah, blah"....i can hear it now from the typical corporate shills on CD. But whatever.

Anyway...here's the link:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/03/...ype=blogs&_r=0
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Old 10-21-2014, 11:20 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia
11,999 posts, read 12,855,351 times
Reputation: 8355
Great thread and OP. I have not heard of this company but would make it a point to support them if I see any. Same with Costco and several other places.

If a company cannot afford to pay their employees a living wage and they need our welfare system to subsidize wages, then that company is a FAILURE-period. We should not be further rewarding these same nationless corporations like Wal-Mart and McDonalds with tax incentives and such.
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Old 10-21-2014, 11:27 AM
 
57,022 posts, read 35,011,144 times
Reputation: 18824
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2e1m5a View Post
Great thread and OP. If a company cannot afford to pay their employees a living wage and they need our welfare system to subsidize wages that company is a FAILURE-period. We should not be further rewarding these same nationless corporations like Wal-Mart and McDonalds with tax incentives and such.
Well, i'm not trying to say that their business model is right for everyone, but your point is well taken.

This notion that you have to be a slave driving penny pincher in order to be profitable is bunk.
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Old 10-21-2014, 11:34 AM
 
Location: Posting from my space yacht.
8,452 posts, read 4,711,926 times
Reputation: 15354
What a great success story, OP. I hope other companies can find the same success with a similar approach in the future. Companies like this can provide a great example for other businessmen to emulate if they choose to. With some publicity perhaps shoppers will decide to give more of their business to places like this and provide incentives for others to follow suit.
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Old 10-21-2014, 11:37 AM
 
57,022 posts, read 35,011,144 times
Reputation: 18824
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Bully View Post
What a great success story, OP. I hope other companies can find the same success with a similar approach in the future. Companies like this can provide a great example for other businessmen to emulate if they choose to. With some publicity perhaps shoppers will decide to give more of their business to places like this and provide incentives for others to follow suit.
Absolutely. The main thing is if we believe in the way a business like this works, then we should vote with our dollars.

And i frequent QT as often as possible...for gas and snacks.
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Old 10-21-2014, 11:37 AM
 
Location: Portland, OR
8,802 posts, read 8,864,274 times
Reputation: 4512
Quote:
Originally Posted by desertdetroiter View Post
Don't know how many of you have shopped at a QT store given your locations, but i use them exclusively when there's one in the area.

Very nice, very clean, and the variety of snacks and drinks...along with some fruits and other miscellaneous items is actually kinda dizzying given the size of their stores. Some even have a grill in back, and the stuff they serve isn't half bad.

I've noticed that it seems a tad pricier than other similar chains, but i'm more than willing to pay a few cents more for the cleanliness and variety of merchandise stocked...especially the soft drinks. And the staff is extremely professional.

I started frequenting these stores after i read a 2011 piece on how well they pay and treat their employees. But i noticed that the piece seemed to have at least a small degree of skepticism relative to how long such a business model could last.

Well here we are in 2014, and the company is doing just as well if not better. Here's an excerpt from the piece:



Wow...imagine that. Sounds SO COMPLICATED, right? Have a clean and courteous business with good products and a well trained staff... Treat employees well, pay them a good wage with the promise of more opportunities ahead, and they'll be loyal, won't turnover very often, thereby saving you money and making you profitable.

Yeah i know..."these people are unskilled and should realize that these are entry level jobs and these profits should be returned to stockholders blah, blah, blah"....i can hear it now from the typical corporate shills on CD. But whatever.

Anyway...here's the link:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/03/...ype=blogs&_r=0

Wow. Maybe this should the trend, rather than forcing at $15 minimum wage on everyone?
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Old 10-21-2014, 11:39 AM
 
57,022 posts, read 35,011,144 times
Reputation: 18824
Quote:
Originally Posted by VTHokieFan View Post
Wow. Maybe this should the trend, rather than forcing at $15 minimum wage on everyone?
Yeah, well at least your post started off well.
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Old 10-21-2014, 11:48 AM
 
Location: deafened by howls of 'racism!!!'
52,219 posts, read 33,956,889 times
Reputation: 28969
Quote:
Originally Posted by VTHokieFan View Post
Wow. Maybe this should the trend, rather than forcing at $15 minimum wage on everyone?
I was about to say something similar. key point in article:

Quote:
Employees there start with typically low retail salaries, but can quickly win raises.
no QTs on the east coast that I'm aware of - Wawa is the go-to convenience store here. good prices, clean stores, free air and ATMs.
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Old 10-21-2014, 11:50 AM
 
Location: Barrington
63,919 posts, read 46,464,238 times
Reputation: 20674
QT is privately held and therefore activist shareholders do not hold their feet to the fire to cut, cut, cut to increase dividends.

They have 700+ stores and about 17,000 employees. They are recognized as one of the top 100 best employers by those who bestow such recognitions.

They pay and benefit more than their competition and as a result attract and retain a higher quality employee.

A minimum wage entry level worker may eventually advance to a management position with shared P/L responsibility and make good money. Most will not because they are not cut out for that kind of work.

There's a segment of the population that will pay a tad more for a better shopping experience, where available.
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Old 10-21-2014, 12:08 PM
 
57,022 posts, read 35,011,144 times
Reputation: 18824
Quote:
Originally Posted by uggabugga View Post
I was about to say something similar..
Of course you were. That some of you were gonna try to out-right wing the other on the topic is a given.

In any case, the main thing is that businesses don't have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to make a nice profit.
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