Local company buys QuikTrip at Broadway and Murdock; store will be open 24/7

The gas station at Broadway and Murdock north of downtown Wichita won’t be closed for long.

Jump Start, a locally owned convenience store chain, will open its doors to customers Wednesday afternoon, a company spokesperson said.

QuikTrip quietly closed at noon Tuesday. QuikTrip did not announce the closure at the longtime convenience store just north of downtown near Ascension Via Christi St. Francis Hospital, Sedgwick County Jail and Riverside Park. The store’s corporate office has not returned calls or emails over more than a week seeking an explanation.

QuikTrip has operated the gas station at 730 N. Broadway for over 30 years. 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.

The QuikTrip sign will be removed Wednesday, Kristin Ghere, marketing director for Jump Start Stores, said.

Jump Start, a locally owned convenience store chain, bought the QuikTrip at Broadway and Murdock this month, Ghere said. The store will be open to the public as it is remodeled, she said.

“We’ll kind of be in a transition period for the next month,” she said.

Like QuikTrip, it will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, she said.

Ghere said Jump Start will keep many of the same food items offered by QuikTrip and $1 fountain drinks and coffee bar.

“You’ll see some of the same menu items, from their hot food case to snacks throughout the day,” Ghere said. “We’re doing our best to make sure that there’s no loss in service for that area.”

The pumps and fuel offerings will also be different. The pumps will have touch-screens and the gasoline will come in different blends than those at QuikTrip, including 93-octane and several flex-fuel options.

The Broadway and Murdock gas station will be Jump Start’s 20th store in Wichita.

Sedgwick County Commissioner Lacey Cruse on Monday said she worried about the change in ownership and what it might mean for some of the store’s most frequent customers, especially people who are homeless, addicted to drugs or living with mental illness and who may have recently left the emergency room or the jail.

“I spoke with Jump Start yesterday and got a sense that they are actively working to understand the needs of all patrons that frequent this location,” Cruse said in a Facebook post Tuesday. “And that is a very good thing for the entire community.”

She said she’s hopeful that Jump Start will treat those people with dignity and respect while also maintaining a safe environment.

“We cannot arrest away this issue,” she wrote. “We cannot ship these neighbors to our county jail and expect them to get better. It’s not working and it will continue to cost all of us more.”

Ghere said those concerns have been heard.

“We are working with our partners at the Wichita Police Department who are providing security for us,” Ghere said. “We’re also working with a variety of local partnerships.

“One great thing about us is that we are locally owned and operated, so we’re working with our friends at the Union Rescue Mission, ComCare and a variety of other organizations to make sure we can best serve that population.”

This story was originally published June 14, 2022 at 12:23 PM.