Casey's General Store

[Pete]

Casey's General Stores to enter OKC market

After decades of very little ambitious challenge in Central Oklahoma, 7-Eleven is getting another serious competitor as Iowa-based Casey's General Store is set to enter the Oklahoma City market.

Building permits have been filed for the southwest corner of Wilshire and Council and the northwest corner of Cemetary Road and Reno. Permits show plans to include extensive kitchens in addition to the standard fuel and convenience items.

The move comes as Stillwater-based OnCue Express continues its aggressive expansion in the Oklahoma City area, while 7-Eleven is building more of its own expanded concept stores.

The 111 7-Eleven local locations are owned by the Brown family of OKC and are unrelated to other stores in the international chain.

Casey's had previously focused on small towns but of late has been making a push into suburban and even urban settings. There are 18 locations in Oklahoma, most in the Tulsa area.

The bigger and more modern Casey's store design emphasizes highly profitable and fast-growing sales of prepared food and fountain drinks, an industry-wide strategy as sales of lower-margin convenience items and fuel sales slow.

OnCue is also adding kitchens to many of their locations after first piloting the program in the 15th and I-35 location in Edmond. Permits have been filed to add prepared food areas to stores at I-40 and MacArthur, 23rd and Santa Fe, SE 29th & Douglas and I-35 and Waterloo.

Like OnCue and QuikTrip, Casey's prepares pizza, burgers, subs, and breakfast sandwiches and the local 7-Elevens have been adding kitchens to its newer, larger locations.

Calls to Casey's headquarters were not returned but the company's typical strategy is to open a dozen or more locations once in enters a metro area, either through new construction or acquisition.

[stile99]

Huzzah!

[Pete]

They have a very good rep and I know a lot of people like their pizza.

[u50254082]

First visited one of these while on business in Des Moines. Very nice stores!

[catch22]

I hope this will hurt 7/11 more than it will OnCue.

[Zuplar]

I hope this will hurt 7/11 more than it will OnCue.

It will.

All this competition finally forces OK 7-11's to bring their stores up to a reasonable standard. Their newer concept stores are much better, although I still prefer OnCue.

[jerrywall]

Interesting. Casey's, IIRC, typically chooses smaller, rural towns. This is an interesting change, although I notice the locations are remote from city center, so may still be targeting the same sort of market.

[Pete]

It's amazing that it's taken this long for companies to exploit the generally horrible job 7-Eleven has done while dominating this market.

But now that there is real competition, 7-Eleven has been pretty slow to respond and I'm sure for most it's a case of too little, too late.

[Roger S]

But now that there is real competition, 7-Eleven has been pretty slow to respond and I'm sure for most it's a case of too little, too late.

Yeah... I haven't set foot in a 7-11 since the one on Shields and the one on 4th in Moore opened.

I will say that the new 7-11 on 4th in Moore (the one the tornado destroyed) is generally busy but the OnCue at 4th and I-35 is killing it at the gas pumps. I don't know the exact count on the pumps, 30+ I would guess, but they are always near capacity.

[Pete]

All the OnCues seem very busy to me, almost all the time.

That business has to be coming mainly at the expense of 7-Eleven.

And even the Circle K's that have been closing... Those are pretty much of the same lowly standard and very different from those operated in California and elsewhere.

[Ward]

This reminds me of hungry predatory animals sensing weak prey and the smell of blood. The feast is on!

[Pete]

OnCue has a bunch more locations in the OKC area already teed up, several not previously revealed. They seem to be picking up momentum as time goes on.

And you can bet Casey's will do a dozen or more OKC area locations before long. Once they enter a market, they tend to come strong.

[chuck5815]

I'm not really on board with the idea of eating food prepared in a gas station, but I know a lot of folks back east who regularly eat at WaWa, Sheetz, etc. To each his own, I suppose.

[jerrywall]

The traditionally poor quality of OKC metro gas stations makes me wonder why Hutch's hasn't spread further east in the state.

[u50254082]

An odd side benefit of these larger gas stations is a much larger awning. When that golfball sized hail starts pouring, I always look for an OnCue to shelter under.

Can't say that about 7-11..

[CS_Mike]

An odd side benefit of these larger gas stations is a much larger awning. When that golfball sized hail starts pouring, I always look for an OnCue to shelter under.

Can't say that about 7-11..

Yeah, when the first new 7-11 concept store opened on Macarthur, I immediately realized they had dropped the ball by not extending the awning all the way to the store. My car gets hot easily, so when it's 100 degrees outside, I sure as heck don't want to park my car in the sun for even a few minutes if I can avoid it.

[ultimatesooner]

lots of Circle K's closing lately - i wonder if Casey's is buying some of those locations.

I travel through rural KS quite a bit - the Caseys are the closest you can get the QT/OnCue

[Johnb911]

I travel through rural KS quite a bit - the Caseys are the closest you can get the QT/OnCue

Growing up in Kansas any time we went on a road trip and through a town with a Caseys, we always had to stop and get a donut. I'm not sure why, but it was a thing with my parents.

[stick47]

Going in on the NW corner of Hwy 92 / Cemetery Road and Reno.
http://kfor.com/2018/04/27/caseys-ge...ity-locations/

[stile99]

You know KFOR got that story from this very thread, right? They mention it in the article, and credit this site for the photo.

[stick47]

Don't see why the post I made in the Yukon Mustang section was moved. One would think that a item about a new business would be appropriate to be listed in the 'specific' section for those items. Where else would people go to see what all that construction is about?

[OkiePoke]

You know KFOR got that story from this very thread, right? They mention it in the article, and credit this site for the photo.

KFOR and OKCTalk have a partnership.

[Pete]

Don't see why the post I made in the Yukon Mustang section was moved. One would think that a item about a new business would be appropriate to be listed in the 'specific' section for those items. Where else would people go to see what all that construction is about?

We can add it back once we have a building permit and construction starts.

For now, let's please just keep this all in one spot.

[stile99]

KFOR and OKCTalk have a partnership.

That was the point. Like I said, it is mentioned directly in the article.

[stick47]

13001 W Reno building permit was issued Jan 12, 2018