Kwik Trip is a Wisconsin chain of convenience stores. It has
gotten to be rather ubiquitous in these parts as the company's big cheese, Don
Zietlow, has been doing his best Gordon Gekko imitation and gobbling up competitors
like Henry I at a lamprey smorgasbord. While Zietlow doesn't have Gekko's
slicked back hair and appears rather avuncular, he's not exactly the very model
of a modern progressive business leader. From what I've read, he doesn't appear
to be an asshole of extraordinary magnitude like John Menard but he donates
generously to Republicans and various right-wing causes. This according to John
McCracken at Tone Madison:
Kwik Trip founder Don Zietlow is a noted donor to a variety
of Republican politicians. Between January 2010 and June 2017, members of the
Zietlow family and other Kwik Trip employees donated $90,000 to former governor
Scott Walker's campaigns. In 2017, the Wisconsin Economic Development
Corporation awarded Kwik Trip $21 million in income tax credits for an
expansion in the La Crosse area. Under the Walker administration, over 91,000
Wisconsinites lost FoodShare benefits due to harsh eligibility requirements in
a state where 10 percent of families qualify as food-insecure. Kwik Trip is
also listed as a sustaining sponsor of the charitable foundation for the
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, which is in theory a business lobbying
organization but in practice the most powerful right-wing pressure group in the
state.
Zietlow has also supported Donald Trump’s presidential
campaigns. In 2016, the Zietlow family hosted a fundraiser for Trump in La
Crosse. Zietlow donated a total of $135,000 to the Trump Victory super PAC from
2016 to 2017.
Apparently, he's also Catholic because Kwik Trip stores do
not carry condoms, a staple at other such establishments.
Regardless of the guy's political and religious views, I
stopped at a Kwik Trip recently while driving home from up nort. Generally speaking,
I avoid Kwik Trip because it just keeps buying out competitors and part of me
feels this is indicative of a company that's gotten too big for its britches.
But this particular Kwik Trip had the advantage of being convenient when my bladder
needed emptying. I found that the aisle to the bathroom was lined with junk
food so naturally I perused it in search of salt & vinegar chips and was
successful.
"Urge" is apparently Kwik Trip's house brand**. For
a company that has at least the patina of religious do-goodery to it, the name
just seems like it's one of the Seven Deadly Sins. If not a deadly one, a
venial one, at least. I guess Zietlow is happy to have people indulge their
urges as long as they don't wear condoms while doing so.
I don't know what kind of frying sorcery they used on these
chips, but they were of a beautiful light golden yellow. They looked perfectly
fried. I am unsure if this is because of length of cooking time or the variety
of potato or who. Regardless, these chips looked like, anyway, tater perfection. The bag
they came in was drab and grey but these chips were refulgent in their
sunflower and/or canola oil splendor.
They had a nice kettle crunch to them and a wonderful roasty
potato flavor that is rare in potato chips, in salt & vinegar ones rarer
still. It reminded me of a plateful of fried potatoes. There was an average level
of salt while the vinegar was medium. I liked the malt vinegar flavor and wish it
had been a tad stronger but it was no slouch. By the end of my sample, the tang
had begun to numb my mouth.
These are some fine potato chips. I loved the roasty potato flavor and the use of malt vinegar is always a bonus.
**29 June 2021 - I have since learned that Old Dutch makes these chips for Kwik Trip.
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