Kwik Trip Is Called Kwik Star in Iowa. 5 Other Things Iowans Know About the Chain
A Kwik Star in Davenport ranked first on Trucker Path’s list of the nation’s truck stops.
Iowans know the chain by a different name than everyone else, and that’s just the start.
Here’s why Kwik Trip is called Kwik Star in Iowa, and what else Iowans know about the chain.
Davenport’s Top Truck Stop
Kwik Star store 1071, just off Interstate 280 in Davenport, ranked first overall on Trucker Path’s list of the nation’s top 100 truck stops, announced in February 2023.
Pull off Interstate 280 in Davenport and you’re at the store drivers’ ratings put first in the country.
It drew on more than 8,000 truck stops and fuel locations, using over 8.5 million in-app ratings, reviews and driver feedback.
Another Iowa stop, the Iowa 80 Truckstop in Walcott, placed fifth among independent truck stops.
The Davenport store took first again on the list announced in January 2024, and it led the chain-owned truck stops both years.
Two Wisconsin Kwik Trip stores, in Plover and West Salem, ranked second and third among chain-owned stops on that list.
Davenport isn’t the chain’s only truck stop.
Story City was set to open a store on September 3, 2020, at 1704 Broad Street, just east of Interstate 35.
The store was to have a trucker scale and a side diesel.
In April 2021, the company said an Ames truck stop near Highway 30 was scheduled for a 2022 build.
A Growing Store Count
The chain got its start in 1965 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, under the Kwik Trip name.
It entered Iowa in 1993 as Kwik Star to avoid confusion with QuikTrip, an existing convenience store chain.
By July 2024, Kwik Star had 140 stores operating in Iowa, a Kwik Trip spokesperson told the Corridor Business Journal.
One of them, in North Liberty at 1810 Diamond Boulevard off Interstate 380, was set to open on July 18, 2024.
In 2021, the company’s director of corporate communications said smaller Iowa towns had been great markets for Kwik Star.
The Marshalltown Times-Republican reported in May 2021 that the company was building 50 new stores that year.
For the first time, more of the year’s new stores were going up in Iowa than in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Cedar Rapids got its first Kwik Star in October 2017.
As of September 2025, the Cedar Rapids area had nine stores, and a tenth was planned for 4001 First Avenue Southeast.
That tenth store was planned at roughly 5,500 square feet, with eight fuel dispensers and no car wash.
Kwik Trip also uses the Kwik Star name in North Dakota and South Dakota.
A Kwik Trip spokesperson told a Lincoln, Nebraska, TV station in May 2026 that any Nebraska stores would use the Kwik Star name.
The company hadn’t picked locations or a timeline at that point.
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Arriving in Des Moines
Grimes and Altoona got Kwik Star stores in December 2018.
Ankeny residents could soon chow down on corn dogs, cheese nuggets and hamburgers, the Des Moines Business Record reported in April 2019.
That store would be the third in the metro area.
As of February 2026, Kwik Star had proposed a 9,100-square-foot store with eight gas pumps in West Des Moines, according to city officials.
It would sit at Westown Parkway and Valley West Drive, on the former Iowa Realty site.
The company proposed demolishing the existing building at the northwest corner of that intersection.
The project was eligible for property tax financial assistance, but nothing had been negotiated.
No timeline was set, and city staff were still reviewing the site plan.
The project continues West Des Moines' yearslong revitalization of its Valley West corridor.
A Fuel Called Unleaded 88
Kwik Trip lists Iowa among the seven states where it sells Unleaded 88, its higher-ethanol gasoline, at over 800 locations.
The company began selling it in February 2017 and had sold over 2.2 billion gallons as of June 2026.
Since January 1, 2026, Iowa law has required retail gas stations to advertise and sell E15, a higher-ethanol blend, from at least one dispenser, with some exemptions.
Who Can Use Unleaded 88
Kwik Trip's Unleaded 88 has 15% ethanol, compared with 10% ethanol in its Unleaded 87.
All gasoline and flex fuel vehicles from 2001 and newer can use Unleaded 88.
E15 is a gasoline blend of 10.5% to 15% ethanol, and the Department of Energy says it is approved for model year 2001 and newer light-duty conventional vehicles.
Check your model year before you fill up.
Kwik Trip says Unleaded 88 shouldn't go in other vehicles, boats or gasoline-powered equipment, and that federal law prohibits it.
Marshalltown's Rebuilt Store
Kwik Star planned its rebuilt Marshalltown store in 2021 as a generation three store of about 9,100 square feet.
In 2021, the company called generation three its largest store type.
At a store this size, you'd find a much larger kitchen area for things like fresh fried chicken, plus larger cases for take-home meals and pizzas.
It would also have a single-pay car wash.
The company's director of corporate communications said Kwik Star produces about 80 percent of the products in its stores in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Kwik Star's engineering and construction departments design and build its stores.
The city's April 2021 building permit report listed a $3.5 million permit, and the store was due to open September 9, 2021, as one of three Kwik Star stores in Marshalltown.
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