GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK)- Some Green Bay residents claim Kwik Trip pulled a bait-and-switch with their neighborhood convenience store.
Two years ago, Kwik Trip purchased and renovated the gas station at the corner of West Walnut Street and Maple Avenue. Those in the area say the company pitched a different plan in 2016, compared to what it is operating today.
“I liked the idea of it closing at 10 and not staying open all night,” said Tiarre Gardner, who lives two houses down from the Kwik Trip.
A neighborhood express store is what Kwik Trip’s Director of Real Estate, Hans Zietlow, pitched to Green Bay’s Plan Commission when applying for a conditional use permit in April 2016.
“We aren’t going to operate these since they’re going to be in denser neighborhoods, we’re not going to operate them 24 hours, so as far as putting a restriction on it, that would be fine,” said Zietlow on April 25, 2016.
As it typically does, the city didn’t include hours in the permit.
A little more than two years later, Kwik Trip is now operating the location 24 hours a day.
“I don’t like the idea just because this isn’t the best neighborhood,” said Gardner.
Gardner says she hasn’t experienced any problems yet but expects to.
“Because it happened so much with the Shell (previous convenience store), it’s kind of like, to us, I think we’re just kind of waiting for it,” said Gardner.
Another neighbor FOX 11 spoke with that wasn’t available to go on camera says she’s already experienced issues with the new hours. She says one weekend a party bus pulled in at 2:40 in the morning and caused issues for 40 minutes. She says it got to the point that she called the Kwik Trip and threatened to call the police.
“We’ve had some problems, but anywhere you go you have problems,” said Kaitlyn Carlson, who lives across the street from the Kwik Trip.
Carlson also worked for Kwik Trip for four years at its location on Lombardi Avenue. She enjoys the new hours.
“It’s an easy place to go get food and it’s always there when I need it,” said Carlson.
“I think they’re trying to find the right model that works for that store and that neighborhood,” said Kevin Vonck, Green Bay’s Economic Development Director.
Vonck doesn’t believe Kwik Trip pulled a bait-and-switch with its plans. He also says the business did nothing wrong changing its hours, but there are ways to address any ongoing problems.
“Instead we rely on if businesses open and it causes problems in terms of maybe excessive noise, excessive lighting, where it starts to be a nuisance for the neighborhood, we do have ordinances that can help us to enforce compliance kind of through that mechanism,” said Vonck.
We tried to ask Kwik Trip what its reasoning was for the change. However, our calls were not returned.
While the Kwik Trip started on West Walnut as an express location, it changed its name to Tobacco Outlet Plus Grocery after just a few months. A few weeks ago, the Kwik Trip name came back, hot food was added, and the 24-hour operation started.
