Holiday Stationstores is a chain of gasoline and convenience stores in the United States. It is part of the second largest (a subsidiary of

Alimentation Couche-Tard Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., or simply Couche-Tard, is a Canadian multinational operator of convenience stores. The company has 15,000 stores across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuani ...

)

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ti ...

chain in the world, with over 500 locations in 10 states (Alimentation Couche-Tard has 15,000+ locations company-wide including the Holiday Stationstores sites, most under the

Circle K Circle K Stores, Inc. is a Canadian chain of convenience stores headquartered in Laval, Quebec, Canada. It is owned by the multinational company Couche-Tard. Founded in 1951 in El Paso, Texas, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in ...

brand). Stationstores are located in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

. It is based in Bloomington,

. Holiday ranked 133rd on ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

''' list of America's largest private companies before its 2017 acquisition. In July 2017, Holiday was acquired by Canadian-based convenience store operator

History

In 1928, Arthur and Alfred Erickson, using borrowed money, opened a small general store in Centuria, Wisconsin. Like most small business owners, they wanted to provide "the best goods and finest possible customer service". They were soon able to open additional locations throughout both

and

. With the additional revenue, the brothers got into the petroleum business. In 1939, under the "Holiday" name, they added fueling stations to their general stores. The stores were labeled by their family "Erickson" name, while the fueling side of their business was labeled as "Holiday". Soon, the company began to expand its operations to other states and offering a wide-variety of products.

Holiday Plus, Holiday Foods, and Holiday Express

In the 1960s, Holiday Companies expanded their business operations by constructing and operating full service discount stores and supermarkets. By the 1980s, with advanced competition from

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

and

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

, Holiday removed general merchandise from their stores and put in full sporting and outdoor goods departments (along with the supermarket). The name of these stores would be Holiday Plus. In the early 1990s, wanting to expand their grocery offerings, Holiday Companies separated their grocery and sporting good stores into two separate brands. The sporting good stores being branded as Holiday Sports, and the supermarkets as Holiday Foods. The Holiday Plus name went away. While Holiday Plus and Holiday Foods were in operation, Holiday's convenience stores were rebranded as Holiday Express. These express stores offered their petroleum and diesel products outside, and general merchandise along with basic groceries inside. Holidaysundayfunday

Gander Mountain

In 1996, after long bankruptcy negotiations with the

Federal Bankruptcy Court United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the United States Congress in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy c ...

Gander Mountain Gander Mountain, later known as Gander Outdoors and Gander RV, headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, was a retail network of stores for hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor recreation products and services. History Gander Mountain Inc ...

, a large supplier of sporting and outdoor goods, filed a joint plan of reorganization under

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

with Holiday Companies. Gander Mountain sold 12 of its 17 stores to Holiday and the existing Holiday Sports stores were rebranded to Gander Mountain. Soon after, Holiday Foods was sold off. After regaining financial and corporate stability, Gander Mountain went private with Holiday Companies being one of its two owners. Holiday Plus Logo

Stationstore and Corporate Operations

Holiday Companies as a whole employs over 7,000 employees. This number consists of employees working in stores, fresh food commissaries, distribution facilities, and offices. Holiday offers a hot, fresh food, high quality fresh ground hot and iced coffee, cappuccino, hot and iced tea, fresh bakery, a breadth of cold fountain beverages (particularly through Couche-Tard's Polar Pop program), frozen carbonated beverages, F'Real milkshakes and smoothies, fresh cookies prepared on site, fresh doughnuts, muffins, packaged bakery, candy, chips and other salty snacks, groceries, fresh meats and cheeses, a massive selection of cooler beverage products, frozen foods, health and beauty products, pet care products, other sundries, tobacco and lottery products, and many other offerings. Most Stationstores are staffed with a Store Manager (SM or GM), two assistant store managers (ASM), shift leaders, sales associates, and food service specialists (FSS). General managers are responsible for store operations as a whole by tending to store financials and merchandising, hiring (however this duty may often fall into the hands of the ASM), customer satisfaction, food safety, quality assurance, and general maintenance. Assistant store managers are generally responsible to supervising shift leaders and sales associates. ASM's will tend to General Manager duties when the GM is not on site (typically on weekends or on vacation days). All employees help keep the stores cleaned and stocked, and all are responsible for handling customer transactions. FSS's typically work on weekdays, typically before, during, and after Holiday's hot food "Power Hours", but may sometimes be needed to run register. They are responsible for stocking hot foods, cold sandwiches, commissary cases, and any other Holiday-branded food and snacks while working. Holiday owns two fresh food commissaries. These commissaries produce the "Holiday Pantry" line of fresh breakfast and lunch sandwiches, burritos, hot snacks, hard boiled eggs, and muffins. The commissaries also produce the "Fresh Seasons" line of fresh fruit, vegetables, salads, pastas, cold submarine sandwiches, yogurt, and many more offerings. Holiday's corporate headquarters is located in

Bloomington, Minnesota Bloomington is a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, on the north bank of the Minnesota River, above its confluence with the Mississippi River, south of downtown Minneapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 89,987, m ...

. It is the company's central operations hub. Within, various departments work together to provide all necessary tools to make day-to-day operations at the store level a success, including the 24/7 help-desk that store employees may call to report issues and get any additional assistance they may need. In May 2020, nine Holiday Stationstores locations were damaged by looting and rioting during the

George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul Local protests over the Murder of George Floyd, murder of George Floyd (sometimes called the Minneapolis riots or Minneapolis uprising) began on May 26, 2020, and quickly inspired a George Floyd protests, global protest movement against Police ...

, with two locations being destroyed by

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wate ...

. The Holiday Stationstores at East 36th Street and Cedar Avenue in Minneapolis was the location of the December 30, 2020, police killing of Dolal Idd during a law enforcement sting operation.

References

External links

*
Unofficial timeline
{{Convenience stores 1928 establishments in Minnesota American subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Bloomington, Minnesota Economy of the Midwestern United States Economy of the Northwestern United States Convenience stores of the United States Gas stations in the United States Retail companies established in 1928 Alimentation Couche-Tard 2017 mergers and acquisitions