WICHITA — Wichita Chick-fil-A fanatics, you asked and you shall receive.
The Atlanta-based fast food chain is in final negotiations to bring a freestanding Chick-fil-A to the northwest corner of Central and Rock where a Presto gas station has been.
The deal basically is all but signed. Presto’s last day in business was Saturday.
Chick-fil-A has space in the Rhatigan Student Center at Wichita State University, but Wichitans have long requested that it bring at least one if not more of the restaurants somewhere off campus.
Commercial broker and Chick-fil-A die-hard Cory Harkleroad started a one-man campaign to bring more of the restaurants to Wichita and has a Facebook page to promote the idea. The page has more than 8,000 friends.
“While it’s not my deal, I’m excited (about) any hand I might have had in getting them motivated to move forward in this area,” Harkleroad says. “I’m really excited to go pick up a chicken sandwich in their drive-through.”
No one with Chick-fil-A could be reached for comment, but it looks like the chain plans more than one restaurant in addition to the WSU location.
The deal at Central and Rock isn’t contingent on other locations.
We’ll keep you posted.
WICHITA — Dillons and Kwik Shop are moving ahead with a pilot program to test Dillons pharmacies in two area Kwik Shop stores.
Have You Heard? reported this was a possibility in July.
Dillons spokeswoman Sheila Lowrie says construction will start late next month on Kwik Shops at 53rd and Maize and 37th and Ridge. The new pharmacies, which will include drive-throughs, will open in early spring.
Customers will be able to fill prescriptions and speak to pharmacists on site.
Kroger owns Dillons and Kwik Shop, and the pilot is designed to strengthen the partnership between the two and offer customers one-stop shopping for their fuel, pharmacy and grocery needs.
The two Kwik Shops also will be pilot projects for expanded ready-made meals, such as fried and rotisserie chicken and home-style side dishes.
WICHITA — Kwik Shop, the convenience store chain owned by Kroger, is contemplating adding pharmacies to its stores.
“I think that sounds interesting,” says president Jeff Parker.
That doesn’t mean, though, that it’s going to happen.
“We have looked at a lot of things like that,” Parker says.
He’s also checked into a Kroger convenience store chain in Florida that has one location with a pharmacy.
But at this point, he’s still in the consideration stage. Parker doesn’t have a timetable that he wants to make a decision by.
“We don’t have any kind of definitive schedule or anything like that.”
WICHITA — Construction starts next week on a new Dillons Fuel Center at the Dillons at 13th and West. It will be similar to the company’s fuel center at 13th and Tyler and should be open by late summer.
“It’s all abut convenience,” says spokeswoman Sheila Lowrie.
The center will be at the southwest corner of the Dillons parking lot.
It will have five fuel pumps as well as a service kiosk that sells things like cigarettes, newspapers, lottery tickets and candy bars. There also will be vending machines.
A QuikTrip is located across the street on the southeast corner of 13th and West. But Lowrie says that’s not why Dillons selected this new location.
“Really, it’s about feedback from our customers,” she says. “It’s a convenience that our customers tell us they really enjoy.”
Lowrie says the fuel center will allow customers to easily redeem Dillons’ fuel-saver rewards while stopping off for groceries. That’s 2 cents off every gallon with a Dillons Plus Card, or 10 cents off a gallon if customers are part of the Dillons fuel-saver rewards program.
Lowrie says customers can shop, get their rewards for grocery purchases and “fill up right there at the store.”