No more Kum & Go? New owner Maverik of Utah retiring famous brand

By Amie Rivers

January 9, 2024

Will Kum & Go have come and gone by next year? One new report claims that’s the plan by the store’s new owners.

The Iowa-based convenience store chain Kum & Go—a brand occasionally mocked outside of the Midwest for its mildly salacious name—was bought by Utah-based Maverik last year.

Maverik said in August it would be rebranding Kum & Go stores in four states in the Western US to Maverik stores, where Maverik had a larger presence. But this week, convenience store industry newsletter CSP reported Maverik would be rebranding all 400-some Kum & Go stores by 2025, citing “multiple people with knowledge of Maverik’s broader strategy.”

And that innuendo was at least partly their reasoning.

“I think there was some concern about the inadvertent double entendre of the Kum & Go name,” a former Maverik member told CSP.

Kum & Go started in Hampton, Iowa, in 1959, and was family-owned for decades before being bought by Maverik. The name references the initials of the last names of its founders, W.A. Krause and T.S. Gentle.

Guess it’s time to get your Kum & Go merch now before those prudes in Utah shut it all down.

Amie Rivers

Amie Rivers is Iowa Starting Line's newsletter editor. She writes the weekly Worker’s Almanac edition of Iowa Starting Line, featuring a roundup of the worker news you need to know. Previously, she was an award-winning journalist at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier; now, she very much enjoys making TikToks and memes and getting pet photos in her inbox.

Have a story tip? Reach Amie at [email protected]. For local reporting in Iowa that connects the dots, from policy to people, sign up for Amie's newsletter.

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CATEGORIES: FOOD AND DRINK | LOCAL BUSINESS | LOCAL CULTURE

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