I remember when I first saw that red and white sign. I was with my mom visiting a friend of hers from college. We took the exit and as I was exploring the new city I gasped and began to giggle, the longer I thought about it the more my laughing it became uncontrollable, my mom was amused and asked what I was laughing about and I pointed ‘Kum and Go.’ She was not amused, this wasn’t the 2010’s this was the ought’s, and I was ‘too young’ to know what that meant and she gave me a loving little pop on the head and with a small smirk she told me to ‘settle down.’
There are lots of cultural moments around this store and I really don’t even want to get into that I just want to talk about what the brand was, where it started and how it was bought out by some Mormon holding company who enjoys the bland, lifeless, and mockingly lame brand of ‘mAvErIcK’ those pricks. (not because they are mormon.)
Kum and Go was built by actual mavericks, the original company was Hampton Oil Company a gas station in Hampton, IA. Started by Tony Gentle and his new son-in-law William “Bill” Krause. It’s inspiring to see two families kum together and go on a life long journey of industry. (that’s writing, take notes)
In the early 60’s they got the idea that they shouldn’t simply give people oil and gas they needed to cater to a larger audience. Cars were becoming incredibly wide spread and accessable so they decided to jump into retail bringing one of the first ‘station stores’ to the midwest. At the same time they also started a fuel transport company called Solar Transport, you’ve likely seen them block the entrance when you were on empty*. This helped their fragile supply chain in the rural midwest become more robust, and it wasn’t bad on their margins either.
(*side note do not fuel up if you see the tanker in the parking lot, when they fill the tanks it can rustle up debris in the holding tanks, and while there is a filtration system in place it’s best to not add undesirable particles into your fuel line)
Thru the 60’s and 70’s Hampton Oil grew into Krause Gentle. By 1975 they finally decided to put all of their locations under one banner. One banner to rule them all, you already know what it is…………
They continued to buy up old locations of other popular brands like 7Eleven, Git&Go, and more. Their brand was not to be missed nor confused. There were people across the country buying their t-shirts some of which had never heard of the gas station they thought it was a larp but it was as real and alive and vibrant with old ladies buying lottery tickets for 20 fucking minutes what is wrong with those people why do we enable the boring depravity of the dumbest people in our society? to pretend to fund one of the worst public education systems in the world?!?!
ok off track back to the kum we go
As they began to pick up speed they moved their headquarters, we're talking big time from Hampton, IA to Des Moines? ya to Des Moines. They kept pounding the pavement buying up distressed store while trying to expand into new territories under cutting their competitors on drinks and deals, and fun. Which fun may be debatable but if you at least have a silly name the homeless drug addict seems a little more lighthearted than a 7eleven.
Now Tony was getting a lot older and so was Bill, they had raised their son/grandson in the company and by 1997 Kyle Krause became the president, he was really responsible for the spread of this viral super power. Kyle here was responsible for outbidding Sinclair on a popular chain of convenient stores called Git-n-Go. This is where I came to notice them. They bought 76 stores across Oklahoma and Missouri for an estimated 13 million dollars in a court supervised auction as the Git-n-Go brand went bankrupt.
Kyle put on a clinic opting for larger markets. He sold off small market locations to the amazing pizza brand ‘Casey’s’ Kyle remained President and CEO until 2020 when he moved upstairs, literally, to Krause Group holding company. At that time they had about 400 stores across 13 states. 13 states, such a nice ring to it.
Then Tanner Krause, the 3rd? or fourth generation seeing as Tony was the father in law to Bill. This is significant because this doesn’t happen often. Maybe just maybe you’ll get a second generation operator. They were around before their parents had achieved worthy success and their children grew to love the company they built and developed the habits to keep them involved. Then the 3rd generation having grown in privilege spend all of the money, this is testament to the midwest, god bless em (us.)
Tanner was no slouch, he continued to march towards the sea. In 2022 they looked to enter the Utah market and the next year into Grand, Rapids while this may seem unimpressive it’s just to give Tanner his due, I don’t want people thinking he was a placeholder before the unthinkable sale of a beloved American brand.
The day the music died
In the year of our lord 2023 Utah based(not based actually) Maverick, backed by FJ Management (better name) agreed to acquire Kum & Go and the inhouse fuel transportation company Solar Transport from Krause Group. Kum & Go had done it, they had earned trust and love by the American people.
It’s hard to imagine the reason for the sale but at some point the greats have to hang up their jersey and move on. One highlight I think about fondly is their soda vs pop interactive promotion. I forget the year but they were selling different cups one for ‘soda’ and one for ‘pop.’ It was a poll of sorts to see how the midwest named their soft drinks. This always struck a chord for me because my father was from NY and he called the shit ‘soda pop’ can you believe it? Sometime I say both too, just for a little color (my life is so diverse and interesting.)
So what happened to Krause Group? Well it sounds like they were seduced by the finer things in life. They ‘forgot where they came from’ investing in futbol clubs, wineries, hospitals, real estate and agriculture. They operate heavily in Italy as I suspect one of them married a nice Italian girl (ya right).
Thank you Kum & Go, it may be a place I only stopped at once a week but it was always entertaining. The small talk, food, discounts, and friends who got jobs there in high school. I’m sorry if I stole some liquor after high school but I was trying to look cool, you really didn’t deserve it but it was exciting.
I’m not much of a writer and almost alurgic to editing, but I didn’t want to stand by why Iowa state has 3 stretched paragraphs on this titan of industry and marketing. I hope some school somewhere is diving into some of their marketing genius.
Good Luck and god speed in Italy…guinea-wops.