Monday, July 5, 2010

BYE, BYE CHEVRON

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to the Chevron not far from my house to get some gas and noticed it wasn't a Chevron anymore.  It was a Circle K gas station.  I thought, "Well, I'm on my way to Sam's Club, so I'll just stop at the other Chevron on the way.  I pulled into that Chevron and it had signs taped over the credit card slot that said, "No Debit or Credit Cards.  Cash Only".  I thought that was odd, so thought I'd drive up the hill and check out that Chevron just to make sure.  Sure enough, they had the same signs taped over their credit card slots.  So I went back down the hill and got gas at a Phillips 66 station.  I wondered if maybe their computers were down. 

Today I went shopping and needed gas again, so stopped at the Chevron and the signs were still there.  I was talking on my cell phone to Amber at the time and she told me she had heard that all the Chevrons in our town were bought up by an independent company.  I have a Chevron/Texaco card.  I used to have a Chevron Card and a Texaco Card, but they merged.  I got rid of my Diamond Shamrock card (which is now Valero, by the way.)  I really hate to see Chevron and Texaco go out of business in my area.  I liked both of those stations and was keeping my Chevron/Texaco card because I like to put my gas on one card so I can see right away how much we spend in gas a month.  Now I'm thinking maybe I should cancel it too.  Both of these Chevron stations used to be the busiest gas stations in this area. In fact the one on the way to shopping was THE busiest and a lot of times I would pull in there and it would be so full, I'd have to just go shopping and come back later and try to get a pump.  Now both stations look like they have the plague or something.  There was ONE car there getting gas, and another car pulled in and then pulled back out like I did, after seeing the signs.  I can't believe Chevron would give up a good business like that.  I wonder if they lost their lease?  Got an offer they couldn't refuse?

4 comments:

Delirious said...

Maybe the parent company is suffering. I felt sad when we lost Mervyn's and Gottchalks. :(

PsychDoctor said...

I saw that Flying J was bought out by another company (or bought another company out) and they were ordered by federal judges to sell certain businesses in order to make sure they didn't have a monopoly in certain areas... I wonder if it was something like that?

Mr. Giggles said...

Well, it's not like the oil companies aren't making enough money! They must have had to close those down so they could get rid of some little people. That way they can afford to add the yacht harbor extension connecting their house to their swimming pool. Or maybe they can finally gold-plate that oak tree in front of the servants' quarters? Those of us who just buy gas may never know....

Inklings said...

I like Chevron, too, so that is just sad!