50 Years Of QuikTrip Celebrated

By Dan Bewley, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- QuikTrip celebrates 50 years with a huge birthday bash.  The party wrapped up with a giant fireworks extravaganza along the Arkansas at River West Festival Park on Saturday night.  Thousands gathered for a special concert in the park.  QuikTrip has nearly 500 stores and says it just wanted to mark this milestone with the community.

One of QuikTrip's founders says the company caught a wave when it opened in 1958.  On Saturday, that wave roared in to River West Festival Parks for a golden celebration.

It was a rocking 50^th birthday party for QT.

"This is very special.  A lot of people worked on it and made it successful," said QuikTrip Co-founder Chester Cadieux.

Chester Cadieux knows all about those 50 years.  It was him behind the counter five decades ago.  Back then Mr. Quickie would welcome customers, and Cadieux had no expectations of what was to come.

"Considering we started with one employee, I worked nights and he worked days and now we have 10,000 or so.  It is amazing," said QuikTrip Co-founder Chester Cadieux.

Cadieux credits two groups for the company's success:  the employees working behind the counter to keep it running over the years and millions of customers who have passed through the doors.

"We have great customers.  We have customers that are dyed in the wool QuikTrip customers.  That's a great gift," said QuikTrip Co-founder Chester Cadieux.

QuikTrip now has 502 stores in nine states and did more than $8 billion in sales a year ago.  The company has plans to keep growing, but no secrets were revealed at Saturday's party.

"We aren't bent on world conquest or anything.  We just open stores at the pace we need to for our employees to get promoted," said QT CEO Chet Cadieux.

The view from SkyNews 6 showed the toe-tapping celebration of a Tulsa icon, as Hanson and Leon Russell entertained the crowd.

Company leaders hope the past 50 years were just a taste of the next 50 years.

"I don't know what we'll be doing 50 years from now.  I don't know if people will be burning gasoline at that point in time, who knows. But, I know QuikTrip will be around because these people will make sure we are," said QT CEO Chet Cadieux.

QuikTrip prides itself on its employee-friendly environment and for six years in a row the company has been named by Fortune 500 as one of the top 100 places to work in the U.S.

Chester Cadieux recently stepped down as leader of the company.  Everything now is in the hands of his son, Chet.

Related story:

09/17/2008  QuikTrip Celebrating 50 Years Of Success