ABOVE: Kwik Trip Store Leader DeAnna Shaikoski, in an inflatable chicken costume, performs a chicken dance to traffic on Monday afternoon at the North State Street sidewalk in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT — The Kwik Trip in Fairmont is celebrating its current lead over other area Kwik Trips for selling 491 chicken units within two weeks. Store Leader DeAnna Shaikoski was seen performing a chicken dance for the community on Monday afternoon at North State Street, an expression of thanks to the support of local customers and commemoration of the establishment reaching its goal. The chicken sales competition is part of the No Ordinary Chicken promotion, which will continue until June 2.

“The company is putting a large focus on chicken sales,” said Assistant Store Lead Dillon Johnson. “It’s a friendly competition between us and the other stores on Interstate 90.”

The Kwik Trip in Fairmont has prepared for the No Ordinary Chicken competition since December. The race to garner chicken sales began officially on April 22. The Fairmont Kwik Trip’s staff set a goal to sell 400 units of chicken, a drastic difference compared to other participating stores, which aimed to sell around 280 units during the competition, as reported by Johnson.

“We’re going full force to sell more than others in our area. We wanted to blow that [goal]out of the water,” Johnson said with a chuckle.

He explained that other Kwik Trips have made impressive progress in their chicken sales, however, Fairmont Kwik Trip has taken the lead by a significant number, and plans to stay at the top.

“For sales, we’re killing it,” Johnson emphasized.

According to Johnson, the chicken sales are recorded through computers. Upon ringing up a qualifying item containing chicken, the computer logs the purchase. An updated report of chicken sales is given to the store each morning. Kwik Trip discovered they had sold nearly 500 chicken products on Friday, which encouraged Shaikoski to perform a chicken dance outside of the building on Monday. If the Kwik Trip increases the number of chicken sales, more staff members will appear and perform a chicken dance.

“One day, we were hyping up our co-workers. A co-worker made a joke about wearing a chicken suit and dancing outside, and it stuck,” Johnson said.

He also recalled distributing No Ordinary Chicken celebratory hats to customers soon after the event began, provoking another competition of who among the Fairmont Kwik Trip staff would give away the most hats.

“[The No Ordinary Chicken event] is good for being involved in the community. It’s a big thing we can do to prove how good [the team is],” Johnson stated.