After World War Two,
the country
expanded largely due
to the building
of the interstate
highway system as people
drove those highways
in greater numbers.
Something else was
suddenly growing.
The American gas station.
Now everyone could travel
from small towns
to urban cities.
People could stop
for a soda, refuel, stretch
a bit, then continue
on their journey.
But during
that time, one man took
the idea of a gas station
and changed it forever.
And this is a new record.
This is 1998.
$10.8 million goes
to the coworkers, 40%
of our pretax profit.
This guy had a bigger smile.
This guy is getting
a better smile now.
One of my favorite things
about Don is that he
he doesn't
walk around saying, like,
I'm the boss of this place.
Like he calls everyone
his coworkers.
Don shows up for
one reason and one reason
only the coworkers.
Mutual friend of mine
and Don's call and said, Don
Zietlow wants to talk
to you about a job.
And my exact response was,
I don't want to go pump gas.
I was born on a farm
near Chase, Wisconsin
was about ten miles
southeast of Lacrosse.
My dad died when I was seven
and my mother remarried
in 1947,
moved to another farm.
My brother was a
went to school
to be a minister.
My mother thought
I should be a minister
after my 10th grade.
The dean came and said,
Don, you're not coming back.
And problem that
I had as I stuttered
from the time I started to
talk, I was 32 years old.
So he said, You're
never going to
preach a sermon.
So
my first speech was
the dimensions
of a two by four.
And so I got up there and
it took me 2 minutes
to do two by four,
and after 2 minutes
I was able to pronounce two
by four.
And so then every week
I sat in front of the mirror
and speak to the mirror and.
And
eventually, after two years,
I got over my stuttering.
One of the common complaints
we get at Kwik Trip
from our guests is,
well, you're
just a big, bad,
large company.
Now, they perceive
that because we have
so many kwik trips
in our market.
They don't understand
that we're family owned
and that the family
that owns us takes
almost no profits
out of the company.
It all comes back to us.
We treat all of us
like family
members internally.
I think that message
still needs to be heard.
I went to work for
my stepfather
on a farm between here
and West Salem, got married.
We had our first child
a year after that
and we
couldn't
live on $125 a month.
So I got a job
delivering groceries
for a company
called Gateway Foods.
Life was good.
So I kept on driving
that truck and I got back
to La Crosse
about 9:00 at night,
and I still had a unloaded
30,000 pounds of meat.
Now, I was tired
and
I was complaining to myself
and the guy that
ran a meat department was
in the office and
I didn't know he was there.
And he came out
and said that long,
if you're going to work
for a company, work
for a company,
if you're going to damn
the company, then quit
and then damn the
company all you want.
And what a change
it made in my life
and attitude.
I sat on that load of meat.
I said, Well,
if I ever owned a company,
I'm going to
share the profits
with the people
that make the money
for the company.
In 1989, I became two thirds
owner of Kwik Trip and
I remember
what I had said in 1958.
If I ever owned company,
I would share the earnings
with our coworkers.
So I went to
my wife that
night and I said listen,
you know, we can
buy this company.
And
but what I like to do
is share the profits
of the coworkers.
And
she was fine with that.
From one gas station
57 years ago to a campus
and headquarters
that spans over
130 acres today.
Kwik Trip
has seen unprecedented
growth and expansion,
over 800 stores in five
states, employing
over 35,000 people,
shipping and receiving
daily food
and fuel deliveries,
food production facilities
and a food testing lab
are all part of that vision.
So as the La Crosse,
Wisconsin campus,
a lot of the vertically
integrated functions happen,
and that's really Kwik Trip
performing things
to support our stores.
And so a lot of what happens
here is our our production
departments are baking bread
and making donuts
and bottling milk
and making ice cream
and soup and pizza
and our storage group
has a warehouse here.
The I.T.
team is stationed here.
And the real purpose of
the campus
here is to support
and facilitate
what's happening out
in retail.
With growth comes
technology and innovation.
But Kwik Trip still
sees one resource
as a valuable contributor
to their success.
The local farmer.
A lot of our milk comes
from here in the La
Crosse area.
We try to get that milk
from the belly of the
cow to the customer
in 24 to 48 hours.
My day
starts in the morning,
getting up at 3:30
and checking on cows
that are cavving
and talking to the workers
and scraping the cow
barn and cleaning
feed alley.
I lost my dad.
And so then I decided
to drop out of school at 16
and
stay home and farm with ma.
And so
and we grew to 80 cows.
Things just kind of kept
going from there.
We started Direct Ship
in 2017 to Kwik Trip
and so we ship about a
tanker load a day
a little over.
You know,
it's pretty fortunate
of us
to be able to produce milk
for our community,
essentially.
It's very important,
our relationship
with Kwik Trip and,
you know, having a place
for our milk everyday,
I mean, that there's
an empty tanker in the yard
every morning to fill,
you know, you know,
because if the
tankers are full,
we're at a standstill.
You know,
they're very good at
making sure that milk is
as fresh as possible.
You know,
they
they pick it up at our farm
this morning and,
you know,
they're processing it today
and it'll be on your table,
hopefully by tomorrow
or the next day
in our small communities.
Kwik Trip
has taken the place
of those neighborhood
grocery stores.
So you can stop in
and refill on bread,
eggs, milk, bananas
and take it home
and be good
to go for the week.
In 2002
we sold no food, today
food that we sell,
which is food you eat before
you get
out of the parking lot
or take home
is 35% of our sales.
I think kwik trips
are amazing for those areas
that don't
have a lot of access
to food,
the so-called food deserts,
having those in those type
of communities or even in
just really
small communities,
where have to travel a lot.
It just makes it life
more convenient for the
people of those communities.
Food safety
is in our top two.
The one thing
that Don talks about
or has been talking about
for 20 plus years,
the co workers,
there's two things
that could hurt Kwik Trip
Number one
is decay of our culture.
If we cease to do good
for our communities.
And number two would be
if we get somebody sick
with food.
Before I was hired,
Don used to toss
and turn
when he got into food,
not understanding
whether or not
we knew what we were
getting into.
A couple of years
after I was hired
and we built
this laboratory, he realized
we had systems out there
to mitigate risk.
He used to toss and turn
when he would go to sleep,
and it was primarily
because of one of
these events, either
decay of the culture
or a food safety event.
Now, he doesn't toss
and turn about food
safety anymore.
Maybe I can say I do.
You can create systems
that can mitigate risk
along every stop
along the food supply chain.
So that's the reason why
we have this food
safety system.
Why would we do that?
Because science doesn't lie.
It's very black and white.
So we have all these
systems in play,
but we use the science
at the end of the day
to validate that the systems
are actually working
throughout our supply chain.
I think so
many people love Kwik Trip
because they have
a consistent experience
in all 820 stores.
My name is Cassandra Berger
and I am Kwik Trip's,
the number one fan
who my obsession with Kwik
Trip started
probably ten years ago.
Like, that's
when I really kind
of became obsessed,
a healthy obsession.
So they have great service.
They're reliable, you know,
that they're going
to be clean.
I hear all the time
that people will drive
out of their way
to go to a Kwik Trip
instead of another
gas station
that won't be named.
So I go to kwik trips
on Friday nights at 10 p.m.,
and so that's kind
of where I fell in
love with the food
that kwik trip has to offer.
So it took me
about a year to visit
all of the kwik
trips in Wisconsin
and
documented the whole thing
with my kwik kt bound
with Cassandra
YouTube series.
And I've got to say,
she is the biggest kwik trip
fan there is out there.
Hey there, it's Katie, girl.
Back after the game.
I'm actually getting
my very first tattoo again
that just started with us
seeing a video from her
that she sent in to social.
So we took that.
We shared it.
We said something about her
being our best friend,
and since then she's
just worked
with us
on multiple little
projects here and there.
Social media has played a
huge difference in how
we communicate
with our customers.
Yeah, right now, combined
through all of our
organic platforms,
we have almost a million
followers, so around
900,000 followers.
Even the other day
I saw a comment from someone
who lives in Texas.
I think they just
came across our page
and thought that we were
the other
kwik trip with a queue
and they were like,
you know ,
you might not be them,
but I like
your content enough,
so I'm going to stay here
like, you know, it works.
You could win this.
Rebel
This is a mercedes.
It's Jesse Cassidy.
This door feature is super
easy.
Just look.
Hey there.
Ladies and gentlemen,
it's KT girl.
And I'm here with Don.
KT Guy. Right.
Don has actually come
to one of my lacrosse games,
and he brought my team
90 Glazer's from Kwik Trip,
and that was pretty special
that he was able
to come to that.
The only place you'll find
my name in a Kwik
Trip is in a bathroom.
If it isn't clean
they call me.
I return all the calls.
Pretty weird that you can
find his name in there
and actually contact him
about your experience.
11, ten, nine. I don't.
I know.
Just last week
I got one call.
That's one to many.
Since I was able to go to
457 stores in Wisconsin.
Every time I would stop,
I would ask
the coworkers like,
Hey, what's
your favorite thing
about working here?
Or, Hey, like what?
And they all just said
how much they truly
enjoy the environment
and the culture
that Kwik Trip has.
And certainly we refer
to each other as coworkers.
As a matter of fact,
we're hard pressed
for any of us to say.
What's your title?
I guess I'd have to
look at my business
card to tell you that.
If you go to
our parking lot,
you won't see reserved spots
for vice presidents
and any titles associated.
The reality
is that every single
one of us is important.
You remove
one of us out of the cog
and the wheel
doesn't in turn.
We're really focused
on our guests
and they are our family.
So when they come in,
we get to know them.
We know what
they're looking for
and we put all of
our focus onto them.
In addition,
we put so much focus
into the love
for our coworkers
that I think
guests see that.
And there's not a
lot of industries nowadays
that look
to help their coworkers
to make sure that
their coworkers lives
are getting better
while working there.
I think what separates
Kwik Trip from the other
convenience stores
is the fact that we have
well over 34,000
coworkers that run the place
like they own it
because the profits
come back to them.
So they know if they treat
their customer well,
that customer is
going to come back.
They know if they deliver
a great experience,
that customer is
going to come back.
If the food is phenomenal,
that customer will come back
and that's their profit.
So they run the place
like they own it.
When you have 34,000 owners,
it makes for
a great company.
It's like part of
my routine.
You come in here,
get caffeinated.
The double
shot is definitely a perk.
Gets me through the day.
They're locally owned,
you know,
and I think there's
a private ownership.
And being from Wisconsin,
I kind of like
to support them.
They have a
pretty good variety
and everybody's nice
in there.
They do a good job
cooking the food,
but it's really convenient.
They have a lot of
great items.
The people on the staff
are very friendly,
very courteous,
and it's just a great place.
So if you need food,
you know where to go,
if you need coffee,
if you need soda.
Basically, it's almost like
a mini supermarket.
And I'm someone who's
constantly on the go.
So every time I go into
Kwik Trip
I know what to expect.
The bathrooms are clean,
which is a huge perk
when you're
traveling for work.
I'll I'll go a little bit
further
to stop at a qwik trip
just because I know
what to expect.
I can't find one bad thing,
to be honest with you.
You always heard the line
that the customer
comes first.
I'm not so sure.
We always believe
that at Kwik Trip
We believe
that our coworkers
also as important
as the customer is,
because if we don't
treat our coworkers
with compassion,
we can't expect them to work
an eight hour shift
and be compassionate
with the public then.
Yes, in capitalism,
you have to make money
to stay in business.
But that's like you
eating or breathing.
That's not your goal
every day.
It's just something
you have to
do to stay alive.
You have bigger goals
than that.
As a person,
we only have to take
care of two people.
The family's
got to take care
of our coworkers.
And the coworkers
have to take care of.
Of our guests.
One of the most
touching examples
of our profit sharing
here at Kwik Trip
was at Christmas time.
Don received a letter
from one of our coworkers
in the Madison market,
a single dad of three
young daughters.
And he wrote Don, and said,
I want to thank you
for the
very nice contribution
you gave me at Christmas.
And because of that,
I was able to buy beds
for each
one of my daughters.
And so I got a letter
from each of the girls
saying, Thank
you for the bed.
This is the first time
we ever slept in a bed.
If we take care of her
coworkers as ownership
or coworkers will
take care of their guests,
and we'll be successful
long, long into the future.
The one thing that
I don't like as a kwik
trip coworker, especially
in public relations,
is dealing with those guests
that are incredibly angry
at kwik trip for a reason
that I don't deem
is really realistic.
And part of it is because
I naturally get defensive.
It's my company.
And so I know I have to work
hard to really be
a compassionate listener
to that guest.
Well,
we had one of our guests
come to our store
with a half gallon
of 2% milk and said,
you pride yourself on
fresh milk .
This is disgusting.
This is bad milk.
Smell this.
So the store leader
took the cap off
and smelt it and it was bad.
And she said,
Ma'am, I apologize.
Why don't you go
back to the cooler,
get to have gallons
here on us today.
And in the meantime,
the store leader
rang up for a $10 gift card
for her troubles.
Well,
the guest was so impressed
that that night at dinner,
she said to her husband,
you know, Kwik Trip
they did me right there.
Husband said,
why did you take it
to Kwik Trip?
It wasn't their milk.
And so, yeah, we do
hear things
occasionally that,
oh, they're just
another gas station or,
you know, their fuel is
expensive or different
little complaints
along the way.
The one offs
I don't
worry too much about.
We're human.
We're going to error.
If it gets to be a trend,
that's when it piques
my attention when I think of
Kwik Trips reputation.
I really hope
it's a reputation
of taking care
of our coworkers.
You see, so many
companies build,
thrive and sell.
But what happens to
the people that built
those companies?
Unfortunately,
what's happening
with the way
the world is
a lot of those small mom
and pop grocery
stores are going away.
But those small communities
that might be 20,
30 miles away from
your closest large
big box retailer,
those people don't
want to travel anymore,
especially if
you're 70 years old
or 80 years old.
So I think one of
our strongest niches
will be
to be the replacement
for those grocery stores
in our small rural
communities here
in Wisconsin, Minnesota
and Iowa.
For the first time
ever, we're building
stores in six states.
And that presents
some challenges.
What keeps me up at night,
especially, is the guy
that's in charge
of our culture here at Kwik
Trip is what happens
if we get so large
that we start to lose
that family feel?
I think as we continue
to grow
and be able to provide
services, communities
and the guests welcome us
in the cities, welcome us.
We can make a difference.
We should and are
planning to
continue to grow.
Will we still sell
fossil fuels tomorrow?
I think we'll sell
fossil fuels for a while.
We'll also sell electricity.
It's a process.
I wanted our coworkers
to say thank you.
For every customer
that left their store,
and I wanted
to do it with a smile.
So along the way,
I used a smiley face as a
reminder of.
To treat our customers good
and to do it with a smile
and be happy about
this is
the highlight of the day
and it's home to them.
And so.
See you next time.