Kwik Trip's viral coffee cup theft post was 'just being humorous.' Company blames shortage on supply chain issues.

Kelli Arseneau
Appleton Post-Crescent

In a viral social media post shared on Facebook and Twitter Friday, Kwik Trip announced it is experiencing a disposable coffee cup shortage and invited customers to fill coffee with any container of their choosing for 99-cent refills.

While Wisconsin-based gas station chain claimed online that the shortage was a result of its cup supply getting stolen by another gas station, Kwik Trip director of public relations John McHugh said it's actually a supply chain issue.

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"They were just being humorous. No other convenience store chain stole our cups," McHugh said. "Although I'll be honest with you, if that were to happen, I think we probably would be fine with it because it means that they would be giving us free marketing using our cups with their coffee."

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on supply chain issues in recent years for all sorts of products, as quarantines and shutdowns impacted manufacturing and shipping all over the world. McHugh said Kwik Trip has also experienced shortages on other items, like plastic salad containers, paper wrapping for sandwiches and disposable plastic cutlery.

McHugh said Kwik Trip is not sure how long the cup shortage will last.

"We're hoping that things are improving in the next couple of weeks and months," he said. "We've seen some indication that some of the supply chain issues are starting to be resolved, so we're hoping that we're turning the corner on that, but we don't know for sure."

Kwik Trip is not experiencing a shortage on all its cups, McHugh said, just the brown paper coffee cups branded with the name "Cafe Karuba." Some locations have more of the cups in stock than others, McHugh said.

Kwik Trip's social media post about the shortage encouraged customers to fill up coffee with their own cups from home, while humorously stating that guests could bring any sort of container — including a work boot, an empty ranch bottle, a pickle jar and "that popcorn bucket from Disney World."

In light of the joke, McHugh said the gas station chain wants customers to use regular-sized cups.

"We are asking our guests to make sure that they're responsible in what they bring. Whatever they use to drink their coffee, that's what they should bring in," McHugh said. "We're discouraging people from bringing in giant coolers and only taking one sip of coffee, then dumping the rest of it. We just want to be responsible stewards of our food products."

Headquartered in La Crosse, Kwik Trip has more than 700 locations in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, according to its website.

Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli