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Circle K Kawada Shop (Higashi-Osaka Japan)

Circle K in Hong Kong

Circle K is an international chain of convenience stores, founded in 1951, in El Paso, Texas, United States. It is owned and operated by the Canadian-based Alimentation Couche-Tard.

Overview[link]

Since the 1980s, Circle K has been the largest company-owned convenience-store chain (i.e. of non-franchised stores) in the U.S.^[2][3] It was second in overall number of U.S. stores to 7-Eleven.^[2] However by 1989, it faced strong competition from convenience stores owned by oil companies, and Circle K declared bankruptcy in 1990.^[2] By July 2010, Circle K had dropped to fourth rank in number of stores (3,455), then behind BP (4,730 stores) and Shell (4,630 convenience stores).^[3]

Some Circle K stores operate gasoline pumps selling Union 76-branded motor fuels; others sell Mobil, Marathon, ConocoPhillips, Irving, BP, Sunoco or Shell-branded fuel. Until mid-2006, nearly all Circle K stores in South Texas sold Citgo-branded fuel; however, those stores have dropped the Circle K name and now operate as Stripes Convenience Stores and are served by Valero-branded fuel. Circle K stores in northeast Ohio vary depending upon what stores they used to be: the majority are former Citgo/Holland Oil,^[4] whose gas is branded as Circle K; others are remnants of the Lawson's/Dairy Mart chain, which sell gas from other companies. Some locations, especially older outlets in the company's core markets of the American Southwest, do not sell gasoline.

The chain operates internationally, branching into Mexico and continents such as Asia. In Hong Kong the store is called OK in reference to the circle around the K. Taiwan used to operate under the Circle K brand but has since re-branded its stores to be called OK MART

Circle K was previously in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, acting as the food-store portions of many Shell stations. The Circle K brand re-entered the Canadian market in 2008, in connection with Couche-Tard's acquisition of Irving Oil's convenience store network, as discussed below.

The chain is primarily located in the Southern, Western, Southwestern, and Midwestern United States. In recent years, the company has acquired the 90-store Spectrum chain serving Georgia and Alabama,^[5] the CFM chain in Missouri, 35 Sterling Dairy locations in Northwest Ohio, and 26 stores under various brands from Chico Enterprises of Morgantown, West Virginia.^[6] This all came after the 2005 rebranding of the various Couche-Tard stores (Mac's, Bigfoot, Dairy Mart, and Handy Andy) under the more nationally-known Circle K brand.

History[link]

Entrepreneur Fred Hervey purchased three Kay's Food Stores in El Paso, Texas, in 1951. Hervey renamed the stores as "Circle K Food Stores, Inc." rather than "Kay". He grew the Circle K chain into neighboring New Mexico and Arizona, which has been the company's home base since 1957 (Hervey would go on to serve two terms as mayor of El Paso).

According to the Circle K website, Circle K grew its retail network through a series of acquisitions conducted during the next few decades, which were incorporated into the Circle K brand. By 1975, there were 1,000 Circle K stores and 3,000 employees across the US. In 1979, Circle K entered the international market when a licensing agreement established the first Circle K stores in Japan; Circle K stores in Japan are run by the Circle K Sunkus Corporation, which licenses the Circle K brand from Alimentation Couche-Tard. In 1983, the number of stores increased to 2,180 with the purchase of the 960-store UtoteM chain.

The Thirst Buster fountain drink was introduced in 1983. It is one of Circle K's flagship products today. Now known as "Polar Pop" in some areas, Circle K advertises that customers can buy any size for just a single price.

Karl Eller, a prominent Phoenix businessman, served as the company's CEO from 1983-1990. During that time, Eller built Circle K into the second largest convenience store operation and the largest publicly owned convenience store chain in the U.S. with 4,631 stores in 32 states and an additional 1,300 or so licensed or joint venture stores in 13 foreign countries. Under Eller's leadership, the company grew from annual sales of $747 million to over $3 billion.

Fortunes declined in the late 1980s as the US economy began to slow down, and Circle K filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 1990; Eller resigned as CEO. Some underperforming locations were sold or closed. In 1993 the company was purchased by Investcorp, an international investment group, and emerged from bankruptcy.

In 1996, Circle K was acquired by Tosco Corporation, an independent petroleum refiner and marketer, but kept its headquarters in Phoenix. Tosco was purchased in 2001 by Phillips Petroleum, which in 2002 merged with Conoco to form ConocoPhillips. In 2003, Circle K was purchased by Alimentation Couche-Tard (a large convenience store operator based in the Montreal area) for US$804 million.

In mid-2006, Alimentation Couche-Tard entered into a franchising agreement with ConocoPhillips to brand some of its company-owned stores as Circle K, in the western portion of the US. ConocoPhillips remodeled the stores into the Circle K scheme but continued to operate them. The stores continued to have the new ConocoPhillips unified canopy design and ProClean gasolines.

Another oil company, Canada-based Irving Oil, leased out its convenience stores operating under the Bluecanoe and Mainway banners in the United States and Atlantic Canada to Couche-Tard, which rebranded the locations to Circle K in July 2008, while still selling Irving-branded fuel. However, the Mainways in Newfoundland and Labrador did not change until summer 2010. The parties had earlier formed a similar partnership in Quebec, with the stores there operated as Couche-Tard.

In April 2009, ExxonMobil sold 43 Phoenix, Arizona stores to parent company Couche-Tard as part of a sale of the larger On the Run franchise. These 43 stores are to be rebranded under the Circle K name.^[7]

By July 2010, Circle K had dropped to fourth rank in number of stores (3,455), behind 7-Eleven (6,523 stores), BP (4,730 stores) and Shell (4,630 convenience stores) in 2010.^[3]

Pop culture[link]

The film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure features the well known line by Keanu Reeves's character Ted "Theodore" Logan, "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K."

In the Counting Crows song "Cowboys" a reference is made to "Circle K killers".

The OK Go song "No Sign of Life", from their album Oh No has a line that mentions the store: "Sarah's still down on the bench by the Circle K, crying, crying all day."

In "Isle Thing", "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody of the Tone Loc song "Wild Thing", he sings, "Met this fine young thing/at the local Circle K/She made a date for half-past eight/So I said 'What the hey?'"

American punk band Screeching Weasel mentions Circle K in the lyrics to "Crying in my Beer".

Band Spiderbait has a song based on Circle K

Circle K convenience stores are known fondly and colloquially by Hong Kong locals as "O.K."

Punk band Teenage Bottlerocket references Circle K in the lyrics for the song "Skate or Die"

Numerous references to a 'Circle A' are made in the Marvel Comics series Runaways.

On Season 3 of True Blood, The Vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne LeClerq (Evan Rachel Wood) is having fun with lottery tickets, wins another hundred dollars and yells for her human Hadley to "Run down to Circle-K and get me another hundred of these."

Indie duo Sleigh Bells references Circle K in the lyrics to the song "You Lost Me", from their 2012 album Reign of Terror .

Frosters & Polar Pops[link]

The Polar Pop is Circle K's name for the fountain drinks it sells in some markets, and most locations offer any size for between 59 and 79 cents. Refills cost the same.

Circle K is also the exclusive US home of the Froster, which are re-branded Icee drinks.

As a sponsor[link]

Circle K is currently a primary sponsor of the #28 IndyCar Series racecar driven by Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport.

See also[link]

• Brands of gasoline
• Circle K Sunkus
• Mac's Convenience Stores
• On the Run (convenience store)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Circle K

• Circle K company website
• Large photo of a Circle K in Okayama, Japan

Bill Clements
William P. Clements (as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense) seated in the table of the Cabinet Room at the White House during a meeting with the National Security Council with U.S. President Gerald R. Ford.
44th Governor of Texas
In office January 20, 1987 – January 15, 1991
Lieutenant	William Pettus "Bill" Hobby, Jr.
Preceded by	Mark White
Succeeded by	Ann Richards
42nd Governor of Texas
In office January 16, 1979 – January 18, 1983
Lieutenant	William Pettus "Bill" Hobby, Jr.
Preceded by	Dolph Briscoe
Succeeded by	Mark White
United States Deputy Secretary of Defense
In office 1971–1977
President	Richard M. Nixon (1971–1974), Gerald R. Ford (1974–1977)
Preceded by	David Packard
Succeeded by	Charles Duncan, Jr.
Personal details
Born	(1917-04-13)April 13, 1917 Dallas, Texas
Died	May 29, 2011(2011-05-29) (aged 94) Dallas, Texas
Resting place	Grove Hill Memorial Park Dallas, Texas
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	(1) Pauline Allen Gill (2) Rita Crocker Clements
Children	B. Gill Clements (1941–2010) Nancy Clements-Seay Dan Bass (stepson) Bonnie Bass-Smith(stepdaughter) Barbara Bass-Moroney(stepdaughter) Jim Bass (stepson)
Residence	Dallas, Texas
Alma mater	Southern Methodist University (dropped out)
Profession	Oil driller
Religion	Episcopalian
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army Corps of Engineers
Years of service	1941–1945
Battles/wars	World War II
(1) In 1979, Clements became Texas' first Republican governor in 105 years. (2) Clements was an early contributor to the 2008 candidacy of Republican presidential candidate U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona.

William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. (April 13, 1917 – May 29, 2011) was the 42nd and 44th Governor of Texas, serving from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clements was the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction. Clements' eight years in office were the most served by any Texan governor prior to current Governor Rick Perry.

Early career[link]

Clements was born in Dallas and worked as an oil driller for many years. He founded SEDCO in 1947, the world's largest offshore drilling company and technical leader of the offshore drilling industry, developing dynamically positioned drilling rigs, top drives, and many other offshore drilling innovations. In 1984, SEDCO was sold to Schlumberger Ltd., and its assets combined with their drilling contractor subsidiary, Forex, under Schlumberger management, to form Sedco Forex Schlumberger. Sedco Forex Schlumberger was acquired by Transocean Ltd. in 1999 and combined with their existing fleet.^[1] He entered politics as the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, in the latter administration under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (1975–1977).

Texas' first GOP governor since Reconstruction[link]

On January 16, 1979, Clements succeeded Democrat Dolph Briscoe as governor of Texas. To win the position, he first defeated State Representative Ray Hutchison in the Republican primary by a lopsided vote of 115,345 to 38,268. Hutchison, a prominent Dallas attorney, is the second husband of Texas State Treasurer (1991–1993) and U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has served since 1993. Clements won the November 1978 general election by narrowly defeating Democratic former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice John Hill, who was the two-term Texas Attorney General for six years. Clements polled 1,183,828 votes (49.96 percent) to Hill's 1,166,919 ballots (49.24 percent). The La Raza nominee, Mario C. Compean, and two other minor candidates shared 18,942 ballots. The more liberal Hill, who had also once been the appointed secretary of state, had defeated Briscoe in the primary.

In winning, Clements achieved victory with 350,158 ballots less than the 1972 GOP nominee, Henry Grover went down to defeat with, because turnout was much lower in the 1978 off-year election than it had been during the aforementioned presidential election year. The 1972 Texas governor's race was the last to coincide with a presidential election because when the terms went to four years, the gubernatorial elections were also set to coincide with the off years between presidential elections.

Clements ran for reelection in 1982, but he was defeated by Democratic Attorney General Mark White by more than 327,000 votes because of sagging economic indicators and weak support from minority voters, who historically tend to support Democratic candidates. White received 1,697,870 (53.2 percent) to Clements' 1,465,537 (45.9 percent). In addition, the Republican down-ballot candidates were all defeated in 1982, including George Strake, Jr., a Houston businessman who had been Clements' former secretary of state. Strake ran for Lieutenant Governor against the incumbent Democrat, Bill Hobby. After the 1982 campaign, Strake was named to replace Chet Upham of Mineral Wells as the Republican state chairman, a position that he filled from 1983-1988.

Staging the 1986 comeback[link]

In between his two terms as governor, Clements was chairman of the board of governors of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He ran again in 1986 and won a contested GOP primary against U.S. Representative Thomas Loeffler of New Braunfels, the seat of Comal County, and former Democratic turned Republican Congressman Kent Hance of Lubbock. In the fall, Clements unseated Governor White, who was hurt by the unpopularity of the "no pass/no play" policy involving high school athletics and proposed teacher competency testing. In gaining his second term, Clements polled 1,813,779 ballots (52.7 percent) to White's 1,584,512 (46.1 percent). Clements had turned the tables on White in a near mathematical reversal of the 1982 results and was inaugurated for a second nonconsecutive term on January 20, 1987, just after White came "Striding up to Clements in the Capitol rotunda" and extended a hand for a handshake with congratulations and Clements simply shook it without comment and turned away.^[2]

Clements as governor[link]

His first term was marked by SEDCO's involvement in the largest oil blowout in history, the Ixtoc I oil spill, which caused extensive environmental damage. During this time, Charlie Brooks, Jr., became the first inmate ever to be executed by lethal injection (December 1982). Clements faced heavily Democratic state legislatures during his tenure. In 1979, the legislature overrode one of his vetoes, the last time that Texas lawmakers have completed an override. In 1980, Clements commuted the death sentence of Randall Dale Adams to life in prison. Adams, the subject of The Thin Blue Line, an Errol Morris documentary film, was exonerated in 1989 after serving twelve years in prison. Clements was also governor at the time of the execution of Carlos DeLuna, who was put to death in 1989; evidence questioning the findings of facts that underlay DeLuna's conviction was published in 2012.

During his second term, Clements worked to reduce crime, improve education, boost the Texas economy, and to foster better relations with Mexico, especially on issues important to the mutual borders, such as immigration and the War on Drugs.

However, he did not push as pledged for the initiative and referendum reforms advocated by State Senator Walter Mengden of Houston, based on the principle of California's Proposition 13.^[3]

Clements's second term was marred by a startling revelation he made two months after taking office. On March 3, 1987, Clements admitted that he and the other members of the SMU board of governors had approved a secret plan to continue payments to 13 football players from a slush fund provided by a booster. Clements said that the board agreed to "phase out" the slush fund at the end of the 1986 season, but that it felt duty-bound to honor prior commitments to the players. The decision to continue the payments ultimately led to the NCAA shutting down the football program for the 1987 season—the so-called "death penalty." SMU then opted not to field a team in 1988 as well, claiming it could not put together a competitive squad. The shutdown and other sanctions left the once-proud Mustang football program in ruin; SMU has had only two winning seasons since returning to the field, and would not procure another bowl bid until 2009. A few months later, the College of Bishops of the United Methodist Church released a report detailing an investigation of its own into the scandal. It revealed that Clements had met with athletic director Bob Hitch, and the two agreed that the payments had to continue because the football program had "a payroll to meet."^[4]

According to the report, in late 1985 then SMU President L. Donald Shields and board of trustees chairman Edwin L. Cox wanted to stop the payments completely in opposition to Clements and Hitch. The four held a "most important meeting" in August 1985 in Shields' office in the SMU administration building, Perkins Hall. Shields and Cox noted that although earlier in the year a phase-out of the payments had been agreed upon by SMU leadership, the NCAA had just enacted the "death penalty" for repeat violators (of which SMU was one, having been cited six times to that point by the organization and twice in the last five years) for violations occurring on or after September 1 of that year, and thus the situation had changed. But Clements, admitting his way would be "taking a chance", argued that if the payments were stopped immediately, star players receiving them would be sure to leave SMU and publicly announce why. Nothing was formally decided at the meeting, but afterwards, Clements and Hitch talked for about fifteen minutes in the Perkins Hall parking lot. Hitch remembered Clements asking him if the payments could be continued and when hearing that they could, telling him in no uncertain terms "Then do it." And the payments continued (on at least two occasions starting in 1983, after President Shields expressed outrage over the payments and said they had to stop, Clements, an SMU dropout, told the PhD holder Shields to "stay out of it" and to "go run the university").^[5]

A week later, Clements apologized for his role in continuing the payments. He said the he had learned about the slush fund in 1984, and an investigation by the board of governors revealed that players had been paid to play since the mid-1970s. Clements said that rather than shut the payments down immediately, the board "reluctantly and uncomfortably" decided to continue paying players who had already been guaranteed payments. However, he said, in hindsight the board "should have stopped (the payments) immediately," rather than merely phase them out.^[6]

Clements faced calls for his impeachment as a result of these statements; two state legislators argued that he would have never been elected had he honestly addressed his role in the scandal. Under the circumstances, he opted not to run for a third term as governor and was succeeded on January 15, 1991 by Democratic state Treasurer Ann Richards.

In retrospect, there was a second death penalty scandal marring his second administration, one that only came fully to light 22 years later, and this one being a real death penalty case. Clements' governorship oversaw the execution of an innocent man, Carlos DeLuna, on December 8, 1989.

Post-political life[link]

William P. Clements State Office Building in Austin, Texas

After leaving the governorship, Clements lent considerable personal effort to support a variety of Republican candidates seeking office in Texas. He resided in Dallas with his second wife, the former Rita Crocker (born October 30, 1931), who was first lady of Texas during both of his administrations. She was subsequently appointed to the University of Texas Regents by Governor George W. Bush. Clements was known for his acerbic, energetic personality, which Democrats abhorred but Republicans tended to cheer. In 1993, he had supported the conservative Congressman Joe Barton in the special election for the U.S. Senate to succeed newly-resigned Democrat Lloyd Bentsen. Barton lost out to Kay Bailey Hutchison. Clements also supported the embattled Texas Supreme Court Justice Steven Wayne Smith, who was purged by Governor Rick Perry in the 2004 Republican primary.^{[citation needed]}

Clements High School

Whereas Governor Perry first endorsed former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York City for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Bill Clements was as early as 2006 already raising funds for the eventual nominee, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona. After Giuliani withdrew from the race, Perry joined Clements in endorsing McCain.^{[citation needed]}

In June 2009, Clements donated $100 million to UT Southwestern Medical Center, the largest civic donation in Dallas history.^[7] On April 13, 2012, Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., President of UT Southwestern Medical Center announced the UT System Board of Regents approved the naming of the new UT Southwestern University Hospital in honor of Clements. On February 16, 2010, Clements and his wife both endorsed Governor Rick Perry's re-election campaign in the 2010 Texas Republican gubernatorial primary against Kay Bailey Hutchison.^{[citation needed]}

In October 2010, Clements' son, B. Gill Clements (born 1941), was murdered at the age of 69 near his ranch in Athens in Henderson County in east Texas. An investor, Clements was also a graduate of Southern Methodist University, married, and the father of three children. He was predeceased by his mother, Pauline Allen Gill Clements, Bill Clements' first wife.^[8]

Death[link]

On Memorial Day weekend in 2011, Clements died at age 94 in a Dallas hospital from natural causes. In addition to his wife Rita, Clements was survived by a daughter, Nancy Clements Seay.^[9]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Texas portal

• Southern Methodist University football scandal

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bridges, Kenneth William. "The Twilight of the Texas Democrats: The 1978 Governor's Race," Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Texas, 2003, 281 pages; AAT 3117260 in Proquest
• Cunningham, Sean P. Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right (2010)

External links[link]

• Papers of Governor William P. Clements at Texas A&M University
• Bill Clements at Find a Grave
• 'Bill Clements Dies at 94; Set Texas on G.O.P. Path', James C. McKinley, Jr., The New York Times, 30 May 2011

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