Popular Convenience Store In Amarillo Goes Out Of Business

Sometimes competition can bring out the best in someone, sometimes it doesn't. In this case, a business in Amarillo got a little competition and it was going to be very interesting to see how they dealt with it.

I say that because the business in question was a major business here in Amarillo, and typically you'd see a place like that throw everything at the competition to win the battle, and it seems this time it didn't happen.

Now, before I bring up who ended up losing that battle, I want to say this is a competition I've been able to see every single day that it's gone on, and honestly, it wasn't a battle that last all that long.

When QuikTrip moved in off of Bell and Arden, it immediately created competition for the Toot'n Totum there on the corner of Bell & Arden. When I moved over to that area a little over a year ago, that Toot'n Totum was hopping.

Constantly cars in the parking lot, the pumps always had people at them filling up. As you come off I-27 and turn on to Arden, it was right there and easy to get to. I had stopped at it several times myself.

At the time I moved over there, the QT was still being built so it was the only option. However, once that QuikTrip opened up, the amount of cars I saw at the Toot'n Totum began to diminish. I know I personally stopped going in there.

Now, part of it was because to get to where I live, I have to cross through the intersection at Bell & Arden, so it was still on my way home. I just started going into QuikTrip if I needed something.

It seems so did everyone else. After a few months of being open, QuikTrip was always packed with cars. The Toot'n Totum? No one. There would be many times I would see zero cars in the parking lot, maybe one, and chances are that was the car of the employee inside.

Well out of nowhere, the Toot'n Totum there on the corner of Bell is no more, and they moved in a hurry to get everything taken down. Just a couple of days ago, it was open for business. On my way into work yesterday morning, I noticed the lights inside were off and the gas pumps were gone. I thought to myself, I wonder if they're remodeling.

Just 8 hours or so later, I head home and there is a crane out there removing all the signage from the store. In fact, they had just gotten the last remnant of it being a Toot'n Totum off the awning that was over the gas pumps that were no longer there.

The building itself had all the signage gone, and just like that, it became a vacant building. QuikTrip 1, Toot'n Totum 0.