Update: QuikTrip near downtown Wichita quietly closes after more than 30 years

A Wichita QuikTrip store near downtown quietly — and permanently — closed its doors Tuesday after more than 30 years.

Lunch-hour traffic at the Broadway and Murdock intersection appeared discombobulated as cars, trucks, motorcycles and even a lawnmower paused to turn into QuikTrip, only to return to their lane after seeing the cones and barricades blocking the entrance.

The barricades went up at noon as QuikTrip shuttered operations. Within 15 minutes, the iconic Q had been removed from the storefront sign.

QuikTrip did not announce the decision to close the store at 730 N. Broadway, and corporate officials at the popular Tulsa-based gas station and convenience store company have not returned calls and emails seeking an explanation. The Wichita Eagle first reported on the closure Tuesday morning.

The QuikTrip at Broadway and Murdock has been in operation since at least 1990, records show.

Jump Start, a locally owned gas station and convenience store chain, announced Tuesday that it has purchased the store from QuikTrip and will open Wednesday afternoon.

The closure comes just over a year after Will Robinson, a QuikTrip guard and former Wichita police officer, was shot and killed while working security at the store.

Sedgwick County Commission Lacey Cruse said Monday afternoon that the closure could disrupt some of Wichita’s most vulnerable populations who rely on the gas station as a life-line.

She said the Broadway and Murdock QuikTrip is her “home base” gas station because of its proximity to the county courthouse and her home in Midtown. She said she worries what a change of owners could mean for some of the store’s most frequent customers — especially people who are homeless, addicted to drugs or suffering from mental illness.

“This is not your average gas station,” Cruse said. “This is right in the heart of the highest need of support services.”

“The reality of the situation at this QT at Murdock and Broadway has a heavy population of folks who don’t have a home, folks who are addicted to some kind of substance, and there’s a lot of folks who are mentally ill who come into this gas station, and QT, for the most part, has done a great job with their security and their security guards talking to these neighbors in humane ways. They keep staff safe, they keep customers safe, and I hope this new company realizes the location that they have just purchased, because this is not just a gas station; this is really the highway between the jail and the emergency room,” Cruse said.

Cruse said she hopes the new owners can live up to the high standards QuikTrip established at the store.

“It is a delicate balance,” Cruse said. “Understanding people with mental illness and substance misuse, treating people with kindness and compassion, and keeping people safe.”

This story was originally published June 14, 2022 at 4:57 AM.