Circle K to Sell Burgers

Although it plans to see how well hamburger stands do business in the parking lots of its convenience stores, Circle K Corp. says it is not just trying to keep up with the rival Seven-Eleven chain.

Hooker Enterprises of Nashville, Tenn., will place hamburger stands outside 12 Circle K stores in Arizona, Texas and Florida in a two-year experiment announced Monday by the companies.

Southland Corp., which operates Seven-Eleven stores, two months ago said it would sell Hardee’s hamburgers in St. Louis area stores and Church’s fried chicken in certain stores in the southeastern United States.

“It’s been an idea that’s been kicking around the convenience store industry for a while,” Circle K spokesman Ray Cox said. “Is ours a reaction to Seven-Eleven doing it? No.”

Circle K will lease about 200 to 300 square feet of parking space to Hooker’s Hamburgers for each stand, Cox said. The burgers will be sold for carry-out only, he said, noting that more than half of all fast-food customers took their food that way.