After listening to a particularly rocking band at Mort’s Saturday night (OK, it was my husband’s Fly by Night group), I noticed that the QuikTrip at Douglas and Washington looked awfully dark.
In fact, the normally 24-hour convenience store looked so deserted, it was almost apocalyptic looking in its loneliness.
Turns out the store, which employs off-duty police officers as security guards, sometimes closes when bars are letting out and hordes of people wind up there.
“Out of respect for safety for our employees and customers, we just shut it down until crowds are dispersed,” says QuikTrip spokesman Mike Thornbrugh.
He says there’s no particular time the store shuts or reopens. It’s all based on the guard’s assessment.
“You’ve got to be very cognizant of what’s going on,” Thornbrugh says, “especially emptying out of bars.” He adds: “No offense. I know you would never do that.”
I usually like to say something witty or interesting in this spot, but it’s Monday and the witty/interesting part of my brain isn’t awake yet. So we’ll just go straight to the links:
- Steve & Barry’s, home of the cheap T-shirts and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Bitten line, is facing some serious financial trouble and could be headed for bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal says. Better run over to Towne East and get your Starbury basketball shoes before they’re gone.
- Alltel, which is being bought by Verizon, tried to buy Kansas-based Sprint Nextel three times, according to this story at KansasCity.com.
- The New York Times says the government may allow farmers to plant crops on millions of acres of conservation land.
- Interesting story from a TV station in Austin. Some writers and producers have settled with ABC News for work done on BlackBerries after hours.
If you find any interesting stories out there, send the link to me at dloving@wichitaeagle.com.
The letters to the editor continue to roll in, bemoaning the Wichita City Council’s decision to loan Bill Warren $6 million to remake the Old Town Warren Theatre money pit. And I continue to wonder what the writers are missing.
The council’s willingness to throw in financially with downtown developers isn’t new, so the Warren support should surprise no one.
There’s a good chunk of city money behind the Minnesota Guys downtown. There’s the downtown Hyatt. There’s independent league baseball and the National Baseball Congress.
And if you want to roll the clock back almost six years, there’s $36 million in tax increment financing tied up in WaterWalk. That’s spending on an area that likely would be bustling today, save the decision of former mayor Carlos Mayans and an earlier council to yank money away. That’s a decision some believe cost WaterWalk a Bass Pro Shop, one of those coveted anchor tenants that brings a boatload of business with it to any development.
The debate on the city’s financial involvement in the Warren isn’t surprising, but the complainers seem a little late to the party. Personally, I wonder what, if anything, would be taking place downtown if the city wasn’t involved.