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QuikTrip Across From Shuttered Walmart Slated To Close

Hugo Phan
/
KMUW

The QuikTrip store at 13th and Oliver in northeast Wichita is expected to close for good Thursday night. It follows the Walmart Neighborhood Market that closed nearby last week. One city official is assessing the area and seeking input on what's next for the property.

City Councilwoman Lavonta Williams says she's been in talks with the QuikTrip Corporation about the closing. She said the convenience store, which opened in 1992, was one of QuikTrip's lower performing stores and the corporation wasn't able to build and expand at that site. Plus, she says business was moving to nearby Generation 3 QuikTrips.

Credit Wichita.gov
Lavonta Williams.

Representatives from QuikTrip headquarters in Oklahoma are expected in Wichita Friday to discuss what's next for the property. Williams says she doesn't want any businesses that will oppress the community.

"And just for one I'll tell you is a Payday lending facility," Williams says. "Those seem to oppress the community, so at least that's one of the things that we would prefer they strategize and look at to say, 'This will not fit that community,' and I also express that desire to Walmart."

The Walmart Neighborhood Market across from the QuikTrip closed its doors last Thursday. Williams says she plans to have a public community meeting Saturday to get public input on what should be considered for that space.

The district breakfast will be held on Saturday, Feb. 6, at 9 a.m., at the Atwater Neighborhood Resource Center located at 2755 E. 19th Street.

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Carla Eckels is assistant news director and the host of Soulsations. Follow her on Twitter @Eckels.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Carla Eckels is Director of Organizational Culture at KMUW. She produces and hosts the R&B and gospel show Soulsations and brings stories of race and culture to The Range with the monthly segment In the Mix. Carla was inducted into The Kansas African American Museum's Trailblazers Hall of Fame in 2020 for her work in broadcast/journalism.