Turkey Hill Minit Markets is an American chain of convenience stores founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1967. As of October 2017, Turkey Hill Minit Markets had over 260 locations across Ohio and Pennsylvania. Turkey Hill Minit Markets, which is owned by EG Group, is operated independently from Turkey Hill, a separate Peak Rock Capital-owned brand of iced tea, ice cream and other beverages and frozen desserts.
History
In 1967, Charles and Emerson Frey opened the first Turkey Hill Minit Markets store on Columbia Avenue in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as a way to better market their dairy products. The stores operated as a separate business - Farmland Industries - with the headquarters in the original store basement. In 1978, they built their current headquarters at 257 Centerville Road in East Hempfield Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. On December 19, 1974, the stores won a legal battle overturning the so-called blue laws that prohibited retailers opening on Sunday, and in 1976, they became the first company to offer self-servicegasoline in Pennsylvania. In 1979, Turkey Hill Minit Market purchased 36 Louden Hill stores. In July 1985, Turkey Hill acquired a number of 7-Eleven stores and six Ideal Markets. In Lancaster County, where the chain originated, Turkey Hill Minit Markets were the overwhelming convenience store choice; in some cases, stores were located as close as three blocks apart. In 1985, Kroger acquired both Turkey Hill Minit Markets and Turkey Hill Dairy, which manufactures beverages and dairy products, such as milk and ice cream. Kroger continued to operate both brands as separate, independent entities. During the 1990s, Turkey Hill and competitors Sheetz and Wawa began overlapping their regions of service. John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil commented on the new situation in sworn testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary in March 2006: "We are seeing healthy new retail competition emerging with brands such as Wawa, Sheetz, and Turkey Hill." In 1998, Turkey Hill opened its 249th store in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. This store was the first of many stores to open with food service. Food Service offers fresh hoagies, sandwiches, pizza, and many other hot foods. Many new stores are built with food service and car washes. Beginning in 1999, new larger stores were opened with more of an emphasis on selling gasoline. About 200 of the 240 stores in Central Pennsylvania have gas pumps. In October 2017, Turkey Hill's parent company, Kroger, disclosed that it was considering the potential sale of Turkey Hill Minit Markets as well as four other Kroger-owned convenience stores - Kwik Shop, Loaf 'N Jug, Quick Stop, and Tom Thumb Food Stores. Any potential sale would exclude Turkey Hill Dairy, which is operated separately from the Kroger-owned convenience store chain. In early February 2018, Kroger announced it had reached an agreement to sell Turkey Hill Minit Markets and its entire convenience-store portfolio to EG Group. The sale was finalized on April 20, 2018. On January 27, 2020, Burger King opened a location inside a Turkey Hill store in Cumru Township, Pennsylvania. This marks the beginning of a plan by EG Group to add fast food franchises at several Turkey Hill locations in order to update food service offerings.
Branding changes
In 2004, the stores adopted the current signage, featuring a stylized map of the contiguous U.S. Kroger also owns the Kwik Shop chain in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska; the Loaf 'N Jug Mini Marts in Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming; Quik Stop Markets in California and Nevada; and the Tom Thumb in Florida and Alabama - all of which use the same logo and font. The older stores will be getting face lifts with the new logo and store front. Kroger has not indicated any plans yet to consolidate the marketing for their 800 convenience stores, but a new vice-president, Van Tarver, was named in June 2006 to oversee their convenience store and petroleum division. Van Tarver left the company in 2014 to start his own business, Van Tarver Group.
