It's the end of an era in America. Kum & Go, the cheekily named iconic roadside gas station and convenience store, is on its deathbed. Its new owner has announced plans to unify the 400 Kum & Go locations across the Midwest under the Maverik brand.
The business was started in 1959 in Iowa by Bill Krause and his father-in-law, T.S. Gentle, who first opened it as Hampton Oil Co. The company expanded over the next decade before adopting its iconic Kum & Go name in the 1970s, which Krause picked because it had the fewest number of letters, making it cheaper to produce.
And he didn't mind the laughs that came with it.
In a 1993 interview with the Des Moines Register, he said, "I can bristle and be offended or I can look at the fact that 100,000 people a day come through the doors of Kum & Go." He died in 2013.
Maverik bought Kum & Go in April 2023 and announced late last year that it'd rebrand some locations, according to C-Store Dive, which first reported on the rebranding. Now, the company is working to unify both brands under the Maverik name, according to the Des Moines Register.
The company did not provide a timeline for when it'll rebrand the stores, telling the publication that it's taking a "market-by-market approach to ensure the best customer experience before confirming each state's rebrand." Oklahoma Kum & Go loyalty members learned late last month that their locations would change by the middle of next year.
Source: Des Moines Register
