Gas station brands appearing in new areas

[buckguy]

If you go back over the last 20-30 years, there have been so many of these, that they're difficult to catalog. Sunoco, which has gone in and out of various petroleum businesses for decades, had left historic areas like Ohio and PA only to return to them about 10 years ago and then sell turn around and sell to franchises. They sold the c-stores but still supply gas. Chevron left the eastern markets it had acquired from Gulf about 15 years ago. BP has sold off its convenience stores but still supply the gas.

[Brian Lutz]

BP used to have a fairly decent presence in the Seattle area back in the mid to late Nineties (I Believe the Brown Bear Car Washes had BP gas at the time), but at some point they withdrew from the area and I believe the majority of their locations became 76 stations. At some point Brown Bear switched over to Chevron (a few with Texaco branding) but the one in Everett just completely removed its gas pumps a couple of years ago.


There's also a long time full service car wash in Kirkland that had Texaco fuel because it was next to another Chevron. It appears to have been sold to new owners who have already racked up a rather impressive collection of 1-star Google reviews in the few months they have owned the place by raising prices considerably, doing poor cleaning jobs and removing all the charm, and they seem to be well on the way to running it into the ground. As far as I can tell they just removed the gas pumps.

[veteran+]

It appears that after multiple trademark ownership changes the storied Gulf brand has quietly expanded into the Pacific states on top of the Exxon,Mobil,and Sinclair brands quietly expanding in NorCal.

Doesn't Chevron still own Gulf?

[veteran+]

How about Conoco and Phillips 66 or Conoco/Phillips? (Colorado, etc?).

[jamcool]

How about Conoco and Phillips 66 or Conoco/Phillips? (Colorado, etc?).

Both have branded locations, but Conoco is the primary brand used in Colorado, 66 not as much.

[marshd1000]

Here in the Seattle area, I seem to remember that BP entered the area by buying up the Exxon operations here. That was followed by purchasing Mobil stations here too! That was in the days before Exxon and Mobil merged. Then BP sold their stations to Tosco and Tosco had a license to use the BP name. A few short years later, Tosco purchased the 76 Brand from Union Oil. Tosco then also purchased Circle K stores. Not too sure of the timeline but I think BP came back to the West Coast by buying Arco and AM/PM and made Tosco give up its BP branding. That might have been after the 76 purchase! Now here in the west, we now have BP only owning the Arco operations in the Norhwest and Norhern California with Marathon owning the rest and BP owning AM/PM, including the Marathon supplied Arco sites. Also Tosco/76 is now part of Phillips 66 and Conoco operations with Circle K being sold off! As for Sinclair, I’d never seen it in Western Washington until I saw it in Vancouver but had seen it in Eastern Washington in the past! It also seems the Exxon and Mobil have played musical chairs in Washington State. After they had left Western Washington, they had both come back. But now it seems that I now only see one Exxon in Western Washington in Blaine. I mostly see Mobil in Western Washington and Exxon in Eastern Washington. As for Gulf, they used to be in the Seattle area up until the late 1970’s. So it’s interesting to see that they are back down in Vancouver! I also remember Phillips 66 in that same time period!

[Brian Lutz]

In Washington 76 seems to be the dominant brand, and is the only one used in Western Washington. In Eastern Washington there seems to be a mix of Conoco and 76 in a lot of places though, where 76 seems to be the dominant brand in Oregon and Conoco in Montana. Northern Idaho has 76 stations, but Southern Idaho seems to have mostly Phillips 66 but also a couple scattered Conoco stations. Oregon seems to be mostly 76, but seems to have few stations in the Eastern part of the state (and none on the I-84 corridor past Pendleton.) As far as I have seen Phillips 66 is the only brand used in Utah.

[storewanderer]

They're rebranded a lot of Conoco brand sites in CO to P66. I don't really understand why they've done that.

I think same in Utah but they've lost a lot of sites there. Conoco had a lot of sites around Salt Lake City and Denver in the 90s and 00s including corporate sites.

[norcalriteaidclerk]

It appears that after multiple trademark ownership changes the storied Gulf brand has quietly expanded into the Pacific states on top of the Exxon,Mobil,and Sinclair brands quietly expanding in NorCal.

Doesn't Chevron still own Gulf?

Chevron sold the Gulf trademarks to Cumberland Farms roughly a decade ago,and the trademarks have since changed ownership twice more.

[ClownLoach]

They're rebranded a lot of Conoco brand sites in CO to P66. I don't really understand why they've done that.

I think same in Utah but they've lost a lot of sites there. Conoco had a lot of sites around Salt Lake City and Denver in the 90s and 00s including corporate sites.

Phillips/Conoco can't figure out their branding. In California many times I would see Conoco branded brochures, sometimes even decals on pumps instead of 76. They became hated throughout California for taking down and smashing the famous 76 orange "ball" spherical rotating signs and replacing them with flat, red plastic junk in the name of "consistent branding with our fellow brands." A fan made a website, savethe76ball.com and garnered international attention by highlighting the destruction of these commercial landmarks. Eventually after destroying many of them, the company listened and decided to put back 100 of them around the West. The website is still alive and seeing side by side pictures of the friendly 76 ball icon next to the ugly 76ConocoPhillips flat gray tower is revolting.