Charlie Berens has been to a couple (two, three) Kwik Trips in his travels as a stand-up comedian.
The Wisconsin native, known for his sendups of Midwestern culture on social media, will go out of his way to stop at a Kwik Trip on tour: “There’s not a better option.”
“I really think it’s the people that make Kwik Trip such a success, and just the fact that it’s everywhere in the Midwest,” he said, adding that makes it ripe for satire. “You see it so often that from a comedy perspective, you can make jokes about it. People know about it so you can reference it, and you can find different comedic ways to have fun with it.”
The Minnesota Star Tribune recently wrote about Kwik Trip’s cult-like following in the Upper Midwest. In an email interview edited for clarity and length, Berens, who has made comedy sketches about the convenience store and partnered with the chain on an iced coffee flavor, shares what he thinks makes the La Crosse, Wis.-based brand special.
Why does Kwik Trip have such a cult following?
It’s got all the things you need in a gas station. I mean, first of all, it’s got clean bathrooms. It’s got good coffee, it’s got good food, and they sell booze. So that’s like the four pillars of a great gas station right there. And once people know you have those, they’re going to go to that place, and then that place is going to be able to have more of it. So the Kwik Trips are multiplying because people like ‘em. People seek them out. I’m going up to Bemidji for a show at the Sanford Center, and I’m probably going to stop at, I know I’ll stop at, exclusively Kwik Trips because why would I go somewhere else? There’s not a better option.
And Kwik Trip has really nice people that work there. They really do. If there’s a line, they have people just waiting to jump on another register, and the line just goes away immediately. So I really think, actually, even beyond the facilities and the products they have, it’s the people that work there. Even as simple as saying, “See you next time” [the store’s signature phrase]. Yes, I will see you next time. I mean, it’s something as simple as that, though some may see it as a surface-level thing. I think over time that builds community. And if you have your local Kwik Trip, then you will see that person next time. You’re not just traveling through, and it is a real thing. And it just seems like the folks who work at the Kwik Trip, people I’ve met, they seem to enjoy it and take pride in it, and that’s cool to see.
So it’s more about the people than the place or products?
Your local Kwik Trip, I think it’s about the people inside for sure. But it is also the place itself. Where this really is a big deal is in [rural areas]. I got some buddies that are in the farming world, and that’s a tough life. That’s a tough life. And finding community in some farming towns, it can be an isolating business a little bit. And at least one of my buddies, I know he mentioned that the Kwik Trip is the place that he likes to go to because he knows the people working there. It’s the closest convenience store. First of all, it’s like 10 minutes away from him out in the middle of nowhere.
And it’s just, you can go there and talk to somebody, have coffee, do whatever, get the stuff you need. But it builds community in a place where maybe there’s not a ton of community right at your fingertips just because you’re farming, you’re working on the land, and there’s not an immediate city center, and the Kwik Trip kind of becomes that. So that’s cool.
