There are two Wisconsin traditions I love above all others. Sheesphead and brats? Well, yes. Let me rephrase that. There are two Wisconsin institutions I love above all others. The UW and the Green Bay Packers? Well, yes. Let me further refine my search. There are two Wisconsin-born businesses I love above all the rest. Kwik Trip and Culver’s? Bingo!
Today let’s set the butter burgers aside and focus on Kwik Trip. The La Crosse-based, family-owned company now has 895 stores around the midwest and 506 of those are in Wisconsin. I love the Trip. Clean stores. Friendly service. Something familiar on a long drive when the last thing you want is a surprise. And the cream dream donuts are better than any donuts outside of the sour creams at the Green Bush Bakery on Regent Street in Madison. When Dianne asked for my Christmas gift suggestions, I asked Santa for a Kwik Trip gift card.
And, by all accounts, the Trip treats its employees quite well. Profit sharing and other benefits are provided and it seems like a healthy work environment. Some might grumble that the family that owns the company is quite politically and socially conservative, but I don’t care. Kwik Trip succeeds because of the way it treats its employees and customers. The company deserves what it has earned.
One of the things that makes Kwik Trip work — maybe the primary thing — is freshness. The Trip controls its supply chain. It has limited itself to expansion only within a 300-mile radius of La Crosse because it makes those cream dreams and many of the other items it sells in that city, and 300 miles is the extent to which a truck can get to a store and back in a day.
The radius will expand some when the company opens its second distribution center in De Forest. But also in De Forest comes a threat. Buc-ee’s, a Texas-based outfit, wants to open one of their massive stores along the Interstate right there. It, and another new store in the southeast part of the state, will be Buc-ee’s first incursion into Wisconsin and the leading northern front in its invasion.
The stores will be 74,000 square feet and have 120 gas pumps. Holy moly. It’s competition. It’s the free market at work. That’s fine. I’ll double down on my loyalty to the Trip and we’ll see what happens.
But here’s the thing. Why is my state government — on a rare bipartisan basis — abetting the enemy? That’s right. Gov. Tony Evers has proposed kicking in several million dollars for road improvements to help customers get in and out of Buc-ee’s. And before the legislature is a bill to change tax incremental finance rules so that Buc-ee’s can get another form of subsidy, this time from the local government.
Why are we doing this? I don’t have any problem with Buc-ee’s moving in, but why invite them in with taxpayer support? Why give them a leg up as they start competing with a home-grown business?
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 