Dive Brief:
- Kum & Go is closing its last urban walk-up convenience store, a spokesperson from parent company Maverik confirmed on Thursday.
- The store, located in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, will close on March 24. The site will be used for “internal purposes,” such as employee training, through the life of the lease, the spokesperson said.
- This comes about 15 months after Kum & Go announced that it was closing all but one of its urban walk-up stores, after first launching the program in May 2020.
Dive Insight:
Kum & Go said in December 2022 it was closing most of its walk-up stores because these locations didn’t fit with its strategy of having consistency across all its sites.
These stores — which were also located in Denver; Omaha, Nebraska; and Ames, Iowa — were about 3,000 square feet and featured no fuel or parking. Built to capitalize on higher foot traffic in urban downtown areas, they mainly focused on Kum & Go’s fresh food program, which has since been nixed amid the retailer’s integration with Maverik.
“We’ve learned a lot from operating our fuel-less concepts, however, they no longer fit into our long-term plans in Des Moines,” Maverik’s spokesperson said via email. “We’ll continue to focus our efforts on locations that best serve our customers with fuel, delicious food, great service, and a clean and welcoming environment.”
Kum & Go is undergoing several other changes as its consolidation with Maverik continues. Besides ending its fresh food program earlier this year, Maverik also halted Kum & Go’s mobile ordering program, and is in the process of rebranding locations around the U.S. to the Salt Lake City-based retailer’s banner.
Maverik agreed to acquire Kum & Go in April 2023, and the deal closed last August. The company operates more than 800 convenience stores under the two banners.
