Brand names have been slowly building up at the former Kum and Go stores at 1219 First Ave. and 1115 Iowa Highway 141 since signage at the local gasoline and convenience stores was removed at Christmastime.
Since then the stations operated as nameless outlets, with nothing but Flash Mart on the credit card receipts to indicate the corporate owner and the source of the gas outside as uncertain as the Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches inside, particularly since the Texas singer, actor and sausage seller died in 2010.
In mid-April banners were raised that announced, “Circle K Coming Soon.” Not sooner than 10 weeks, however, as the temporary banners are still hanging and promising the permanent Circle K signage.
Similarly slow progress on the exterior beauty of the former Kum and Go stores in Boone led that city’s impatient city council this week to deny Flash Mart’s request for a 60-day extension to its tobacco and vaping license.
June has seen progress on the gasoline side of the business, with the Phillips 66 brand now emblazoned from the pump and the canopies at both locations. ConocoPhillips, which trades under the Phillips 66 brand, purchased the Oil and Shale Corporation in 2001, which then owned Circle K line of convenience stores, but it sold its Circle K stores in 2003 to Alimentation Couche-Tard, a large convenience store operator based in Montreal, Quebec.
Today Circle K is second only to 7-Eleven as the largest chain of company-owned, non-franchised convenience stores in the U.S. The stores sell gasoline under the Circle K brand as well as other brands, including Phillips 66.
Flash Mart Director Saeed Mahboubi and Flash Mart Regional Manager Avishek Sapkota, both based in Texas, were unavailable for comment.
