7 Things Oklahomans Will Only Buy at One Convenience Chain
Tulsa-born QuikTrip turned 68 this year.
For many Oklahomans, no other chain comes close.
These are the things Oklahomans will only buy at one convenience chain.
1. Freezoni
QuikTrip keeps a machine behind the counter that pours a frozen drink under one name only: The Freezoni.
Other gas stations sell a frozen soda in a cup, but nobody else can call it a Freezoni.
That’s the whole point.
QuikTrip has given away free Freezonis through its mobile app before, a promotion that only works because nowhere else sells a Freezoni.
Flavors rotate through that machine across the year, from cola to fruit blends, but the name over the spout never changes.
2. QuikShake
QuikTrip’s milkshakes come out of the same soft-serve machine as its cones.
The menu board lists it as a QuikShake, never a milkshake.
Ask for a milkshake at the counter, and the person at the register still rings up a QuikShake, chocolate, vanilla or strawberry.
No competitor can use it.
QuikTrip’s parent company registered that name, so a competing store down the road can’t put “QuikShake” on its menu, even though it can still sell a milkshake.
What “Only Here” Means at QuikTrip
QuikTrip’s Freezoni and QuikShake are trademarked names at this Oklahoma convenience chain, not nicknames the staff made up on their own.
A trademark blocks a name, not a category, so another Oklahoma convenience store can still sell a frozen drink or a milkshake, just never under those two words.
That’s the difference between a recipe and a brand: The category is common, and the name on the cup isn’t.
3. Hole Bunches
QuikTrip bakes bite-size glazed donut holes fresh in its stores and sells them under a name the chain owns outright: Hole Bunches.
The federal trademark for that exact name, held by QuikTrip’s parent company, covers the name only, not the doughnut hole recipe.
The name is what’s exclusive.
Another convenience store can still fry up bite-size doughnuts under a different name.
A shopper who wants that exact bag still has to walk into a QuikTrip, since the name that describes it doesn’t exist on any other store’s menu board.
QuikTrip sells Hole Bunches by the bag near the register, a grab-and-go size built for a car cupholder.
4. QTea
Sweet and unsweet tea pours from QuikTrip’s fountain under one house name, QTea, never a generic “sweet tea” label.
That name is a registered trademark held by QuikTrip’s parent company, and it covers the four letters on the cup, not the tea inside it.
Nowhere else pours a QTea.
Several flavors of QTea rotate through that fountain, and every one of them keeps the same four letters on the cup.
Stop at a different convenience store for iced tea.
A customer will still find sweet tea there, just never poured under the QTea name.
Psst! How much do you know about Oklahoma’s gas station and highway history? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Oklahoma Pit Stop IQ
Answer these questions on Oklahoma’s gas station and highway history. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Company lore ties Phillips 66’s 1927 name to three coinciding numbers. Which of these didn’t factor in?
5. Big Q
At QuikTrip, the largest fountain cup goes by one name, the Big Q, a size other Oklahoma gas stations just measure in ounces.
QuikTrip filed to trademark that name in 2023, but the application has never been approved.
Big Q is simply what the chain calls its largest cup, not a name protected by law the way Freezoni and QuikShake are.
QuikTrip just calls it that.
QuikTrip's plastic and foam versions of that cup don't even hold the exact same amount, but the chain labels both Big Q.
No other convenience store prints those two words on a cup, so a customer can tell at a glance which chain poured the drink.
6. QT Kitchens Cinnamon Rolls
QuikTrip bakes its cinnamon rolls in-store under one kitchen brand, QT Kitchens (QT is short for QuikTrip), rather than buying them frozen from an outside bakery chain.
Many gas stations warm up a cinnamon roll from a box, but the QT Kitchens version comes out of a QuikTrip oven.
Nobody else bakes it fresh.
A fresh batch typically comes out of that oven each morning, and a customer walking in early enough can smell it before reaching the counter.
Other convenience stores sell cinnamon rolls too, just not baked fresh under the QT Kitchens name.
That in-house label is what QuikTrip owns, not the recipe.
7. QT Kitchens Chicken Tenders
That same QT Kitchens label covers QuikTrip's chicken tenders too, a three-piece order made inside the store, not shipped in from a national chicken brand's freezer truck.
Many other gas stations fry chicken tenders too, but only QuikTrip can put the QT Kitchens name on the box.
That part is QuikTrip's alone.
That in-house recipe is why regulars say the tenders taste different from what a competing pump down the street fries up.
A road trip turns into a running argument over whether QuikTrip's tenders or its cinnamon rolls win the QT Kitchens menu, and neither side gives in easily.
QuikTrip's Coined Word, Snackle
QuikTrip coined a word in 2020 for anything bought at its QT Kitchens counter: A snackle, part snack and part meal.
The company put actor Chuck Norris in ads defining the term that same year.
QuikTrip said then that it hoped Merriam-Webster would consider snackle for that year's new-word list, and the chain had plans to submit the term to the Oxford English Dictionary too.
Neither dictionary picked it up.
A grilled cheese, a vanilla cone, a pizza slice or a Big Q all count as a snackle at QuikTrip, a word that shows up nowhere outside the chain's marketing.
Ask for a snackle at a different convenience store, and the person behind the counter will just look confused.
How QuikTrip Got Its Start in Tulsa
QuikTrip opened its first store on a Tulsa street corner on September 25, 1958.
Founder Burt Holmes got the idea after watching a handful of 7-Eleven stores stay busy all day on a trip to Dallas.
Holmes and partner Chester Cadieux bet that Tulsa neighborhoods would support that same kind of quick stop.
The company didn't reach positive net worth until 1962, after nearly four years of operating in the red, by which point it ran eight stores total.
Eight stores became a thousand.
QuikTrip crossed into Arizona in 2000 and opened its 800th store in 2021, carrying those same house-brand names into every new state.
QuikTrip has grown to 1,200 stores nationwide, a chain that still lists locations in 21 Oklahoma cities, from Tulsa to Oklahoma City.
None of those early stores sold a drop of gasoline.
QuikTrip didn't add fuel pumps until 1971, more than a decade after that first Tulsa opening, when store No. 58 became the chain's first to pump gas alongside the groceries.
9 Things Nobody Warns You About Before Moving to Oklahoma
Oklahoma can make a new resident feel financially lucky and completely unprepared in the same week.
A property tax bill brings relief, while a home insurance quote ties stomachs in knots.
That's only the beginning of what catches newcomers off guard.
9 Things Nobody Warns You About Before Moving to Oklahoma
9 Things Oklahomans Miss Most After They Leave the State
A cooler goes into the back of a moving truck outside a Braum's in Norman, packed with a half-gallon of butter pecan ice cream for the drive out of state.
It won't survive the trip, and everyone loading that truck already knows it, so they pack it anyway.
