The Circle K Corporation

Circle K has always been an important part of my life. According to my parents, one of my first words was «K,» for Circle K. My grandmother drew a Circle K symbol next to her signature on my early birthday cards. When I was a little bit older, I had a TV Guide route (yes, the weekly magazines were delivered door to door at one time). I spent most of my earnings at Circle K, giving me an important lesson in money management and nutrition. Today, Circle K no longer dominates the convenience store market in Arizona as it did back then, but on weekdays, I am still a daily customer.
As a Circle K devotee, I was thrilled when the small, rundown, hard-​to-​see store on Pinal Avenue in Casa Grande moved a few months ago to the corner of Pinal and Rodeo, the site of the former Chevron. They literally closed the old store one afternoon and opened the new one the next evening.
What a difference a day makes. The new store is better in just about every way. It’s bigger with wider aisles and better staffed. It has twice as many gas pumps, a bigger soda fountain, and more grilling space for Tornados and Diamondback wieners. They now have a car wash and even an RV wash.
Then there is the beer cave, which has become the hallmark of newer Circle K stores. I love to go in there on hot summer days. I don’t drink, so I don’t actually buy any beer. But it’s a great place to cool off. Of course, if a store clerk or another customer walks in, I pretend to be perusing the beer selection.
Other people have noticed the new Circle K too. Lots of them. The old Chevron hardly had any business, mainly because their gas prices were so high. At the new store, you are lucky to find a parking space in the morning.
This brings me to a suggestion: Because of the parking shortage, many customers create their own parking spaces, creating havoc in the parking lot. Perhaps Circle K could add parking spaces by painting lines on the pavement on the south side of the building and by the curb along the north and west sides of the parking lot. It would make things much more orderly.
Another slight negative is that the cashiers often serve two customers at once on the same counter. There is little room between the cash registers, so serving one customer to the right of one cash register and another customer to the left of the next cash register makes no sense. They might want to take a lesson in customer queuing from the folks at QuikTrip.
The employees at the new Circle K are very friendly and better trained than at the old store. Someone behind the counter always says «hi» the second I walk in. They act as if they actually like their jobs. Having said that, I loved the manager and employees at the old Circle K. They were good down-​to-​earth people who worked hard because they were terribly understaffed. They didn’t move to the new store, so I hope they got good jobs elsewhere in the Circle K world.
Also, this is strictly a personal thing, but I miss the pay phone in front of the old store. I never used it, nor did anybody else, but you rarely see pay phones these days. They should have moved the phone to the new store strictly for nostalgia or novelty purposes.
Along our commute to work, my wife and I wouldn’t think of starting our day without a trip to Circle K. To us, every day is a Circle K day.
Hey, maybe that would make a good marketing slogan.

Here is a Circle K I usually right about. On a crappy dirt filled lot with trash everywhere. There are homeless everywhere asking for change or sitting in the corner. The store is old small and disgusting inside. The employees are slow and don’t care.
There are only 4 pumps here and in a SMALL parking lot so good luck trying to maneuver around when its busy.
All around this is how 80% of Circle Ks are and why if I can help it I do not stop here.

Their «fresh food to go» sign is wildly misleading. Tequitos that have been rotating in the warmer for 8 hours and hotdogs with no buns are not considered «fresh food.»
Also, the cashier didn’t even LOOK at me when he rang me up but continued to gawk at the young girls who just walked in and talked to his fellow cashier about his «baby mama.» Even though your in the sticks, you could still try to provide good customer service.