Curious what the new QuikTrip model in Wichita looks like? See for yourself.
Wichita’s newest QuikTrip opens Thursday at West Kellogg and 135th Street, and it features the Tulsa chain’s latest design for its stores, which the company refers to as Gen 4 — or the fourth generation.
The first Gen 4 store debuted earlier this month in Broken Arrow, and Wichita and Joplin are the second and third markets with the latest look with Thursday openings.
The new models have an extra 1,000 square feet for a total of about 6,300 square feet. That’s bigger than previous models but still smaller than a QuikTrip travel center. The stores feel a lot more spacious than the other traditional models.
The extra room in part will allow the kitchen to double in size, and there is a new, dedicated area for customers to place kitchen orders.
A glass vestibule and a walk-up window
In addition to a new glass vestibule and more windows along the front of the store, there’s also a walk-up window.
It’s not for daily use, though. Instead, it’s for if or when emergencies force the store to close. Say, if another pandemic happens. Customers can use the window to still buy gas.
A particularly striking feature of the new Gen 4 model is the bathroom setup.
Instead of divided bathrooms for men and women, there are eight individual unisex restrooms, four of which are ADA compliant, that both men and women can enter. A light above each restroom lets customers know if they’re in use or not.
The new Gen 4 store is designed to be able to adapt to needs over time. There could be future testing of store pickups and deliveries that wouldn’t require a lot of structural changes to the store.
And — here’s an exciting possibility for the future — there could be some tests for a new drive-through concept. More on that to come probably in the next six months or so, though it’s not for certain that it will happen.
QuikTrip is not planning to replace its existing Gen 3 stores in Wichita, but most if not all future stores in the area will be the Gen 4 model.