Business News and Notes: Kum & Go north opens for busy first day
Sales Manager Terry Zimmerman gives customer Valerie Rohrich her change Friday at the grand opening of the north Kum & Go convenience store. Enlarge photo
June 30, 2008
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Les Self, general manager for the Kum & Go north location at 895 Yampa Ave., pulled into work at 5 a.m. Friday for his store’s grand opening after a lengthy remodel.
The store wasn’t supposed to open until 6 a.m.
To his surprise, Self said, there already were several cars waiting at the gas pumps and a few people standing outside the front door.
“Oh, it’s been very busy today,” he said later that afternoon. “I’m definitely glad to be back open and get to see everyone in the community again.”
Mike Zimmerman, 34, was one resident who stopped by the store Friday. He brought his children with him.
“It’s a really nice store,” he said. “I just wanted to come by and check it out, see what’s different.”
The new Kum & Go is greatly expanded over the previous store in the same location, Self said.
New food stands with everything from chicken wings to breakfast pizzas — and new merchandise such as pink Kum & Go caps for the ladies — line the aisles inside.
Self said space was too limited inside the old store for the company to stock its newer features, but with the new store, Craig residents will be able to find anything they would at Kum & Gos in bigger cities.
The food service area may see the most traffic. It has more than the generic convenience store fare, Self said.
“We make it all here, and it’s pretty good,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff, like the breakfast pizzas are really good, a lot of stuff that’s nicer to go on than just a burrito.”
Self said every Kum & Go store makes room for store merchandise, such as the pink caps, T-shirts and lighters.
“We sell a lot of it, we really do,” he said. “Sometimes, people that might come from the south or the east — where we don’t have stores — will come in and buy 10 or 15 lighters just to give them to their friends back home.
“I guess they get a jolt out of the name.”
The store also has an expanded gas service station, with six pump stations and a large overhanging canopy. Before, there were two stations and no overhang for when it rained.
Kum & Go plans to close its 1302 W. Victory Way location around July 7 for that location’s remodel project, Self said.
The building will be demolished to make way for a large gas pump station with 10 stations total.
Self said he couldn’t say when the West Victory Way remodel would finish.
Company officials initially scheduled the north location’s remodel to be done by Jan. 1, but complications with the Colorado Department of Transportation pushed that back until Friday.
CDOT required Kum & Go to add turn lanes and other renovations at the Yampa Avenue and Ninth Street intersection to accommodate additional traffic.
Collin Smith can be reached at 875-1794 or cesmith@craigdailypress.com
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30 June 2008 at noon
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xrsareus (Anonymous) says…
Nice store, but…. If kum & go opening in Jan. was postponed because of CDOT and their engineers, they got screwed. What a terrible design flaw putting an island in the middle of the entrance off of Yampa. Todays normal size pickups will have a hard time pulling in. Pulling a trailer will be reall tough. Hope they see their mistake on the one west. Nice improvment to the north side of town.
30 June 2008 at 2:40 p.m.
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WileyWapiti (Anonymous) says…
I am with you, it will take some getting used to to get in and out if you are heading South off of Yampa as well.
30 June 2008 at 3:46 p.m.
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xrsareus (Anonymous) says…
Also wait until winter, with the lane so narrow it will not be wide enough when the snow piles build up. Oh yea, engineers don't think about winter. Also turn arrows would have been nice for the light with all the school traffic during the school year.
30 June 2008 at 5:42 p.m.
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50cal (Anonymous) says…
let the kids run for their lives. survival of the fittest. then we could turn the school bus drivers loose in the snow plows and with a little overtime they would have the snow wiped out engineers be damned
30 June 2008 at 7:54 p.m.
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redneckgirl (Anonymous) says…
if you do have a big truck….don't park towards that entrance. I do have a big truck and if there is one parked there; you can't pull in without running over the island to miss what ever long vehicle is parked there. Dumb….
30 June 2008 at 8:20 p.m.
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50cal (Anonymous) says…
oh i cant do it.
30 June 2008 at 9:04 p.m.
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redneckgirl (Anonymous) says…
and why not 50?? go ahead…tease me all you want….you'll be sorry!
30 June 2008 at 9:09 p.m.
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50cal (Anonymous) says…
i thought you were better than that at parking.
30 June 2008 at 9:59 p.m.
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redneckgirl (Anonymous) says…
now how do you know that??
1 July 2008 at 9 a.m.
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50cal (Anonymous) says…
something I read
1 July 2008 at 9:08 p.m.
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redneckgirl (Anonymous) says…
i always worry about scratching my truck, especially the roof….even though nobody can see up there.