Death of AM/PM

jamcool
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Re: Death of AM/PM

Post by jamcool »

I suspect when/if Marathon takes over those company owned AM/PM sites in Phoenix (and the Giant sites in Tucson) will become the first Speedway stores in the West.
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Re: Death of AM/PM

Post by storewanderer »

I am not sure any of those AM/PMs in Phoenix are company owned...

But they seem to be underperforming and lacking penetration so maybe they could be acquired easily. Giant is definitely strong outside Phoenix... Speedway will see a lot of stores in rural Arizona.
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Re: Death of AM/PM

Post by Brian Lutz »

I did see a new (still under construction) AM/PM location in Federal Way WA along Highway 99 a couple of weeks ago, Been a while since I've seen any other new ones though, aside from a few gas stations being rebranded to Arco and getting AM/PM locations in the process. There are a couple of former Arco stations in Redmond (no convenience store, too small) and Kirkland that have basically sat abandoned for years though (Here is the Redmond one, and the Kirkland one.) At some point they stuck a "New brand coming soon" banner on the Kirkland location but nothing ever happened, and it has sat abandoned for at least five years now.) I suspect the Redmond location will eventually be torn down and turned into apartments like everything else in Redmond, but so far it hasn't happened.
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Re: Death of AM/PM

Post by storewanderer »

So it looks like BP has started to have some corporate operated AM/PMs around Northern California again. This is funny as they went to a 100% franchised/dealer set up a number of years ago (back around when they eliminated AM PM in the Midwest).

What they appear to be doing is buying up certain locations as the locations go up for sale (probably to prevent them from switching brands away from Arco and away from AM/PM).

This appears to have started in late 2018 and they have about 20 corporate owned stations now.

I think they may have been doing some of this in OR/WA as well.

The location I went to today was very clean, had reasonable prices on drinks, and accepted credit cards. If the other 95% of AM/PMs were like this, I'd be a regular customer.
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Re: Death of AM/PM

Post by Alpha8472 »

I never pay for drinks at AMPM, nor donuts, nor 3 pack cookies. I always use the AMPM app and press the check in button. Then you play the scratcher game and you win either free medium drinks, free donut, free sandwich, or free 3 pack of cookies. I almost always win something. You do not even have to make a purchase to redeem the free food. The cashier will just scan your item and then scan your AMPM app barcode. I wonder how they stay in business with all of this free stuff. I usually get a few dollars of gas just to not look like I am getting free stuff everyday. I do notice that much of the time the cookies and donuts are past their sell by dates. They just want to give this stuff away.
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Re: Death of AM/PM

Post by Super S »

One OLD AM/PM that puzzles me a little is near Ridgefield, WA. It looks like it may have been converted from a service station building. It's a little weird in that the store is still located on the old road alignment before a bridge over I-5 was replaced around 10 years ago, which shifted the alignment south. Where the AM/PM sits is on the old road alignment which is a dead end, and is across from an old Circle K which became a 7-Eleven which has been closed for several years. It might be surviving because the Chevron on the other side of the freeway is perhaps the highest priced Chevron in Southwest Washington, although a much cheaper Chevron recently opened at the Ilani casino one exit north.
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Re: Death of AM/PM

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: October 12th, 2020, 7:37 am One OLD AM/PM that puzzles me a little is near Ridgefield, WA. It looks like it may have been converted from a service station building. It's a little weird in that the store is still located on the old road alignment before a bridge over I-5 was replaced around 10 years ago, which shifted the alignment south. Where the AM/PM sits is on the old road alignment which is a dead end, and is across from an old Circle K which became a 7-Eleven which has been closed for several years. It might be surviving because the Chevron on the other side of the freeway is perhaps the highest priced Chevron in Southwest Washington, although a much cheaper Chevron recently opened at the Ilani casino one exit north.
There are a few buildings like that around Reno and they have had AM PMs inside since the 80's until recently when most left the brand. I'm not sure if they were initially service stations though.
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Re: Death of AM/PM

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: October 12th, 2020, 1:18 am I never pay for drinks at AMPM, nor donuts, nor 3 pack cookies. I always use the AMPM app and press the check in button. Then you play the scratcher game and you win either free medium drinks, free donut, free sandwich, or free 3 pack of cookies. I almost always win something. You do not even have to make a purchase to redeem the free food. The cashier will just scan your item and then scan your AMPM app barcode. I wonder how they stay in business with all of this free stuff. I usually get a few dollars of gas just to not look like I am getting free stuff everyday. I do notice that much of the time the cookies and donuts are past their sell by dates. They just want to give this stuff away.
The AMPM Cookies are actually quite good though... if fresh. I liked the old loose set up where you could select 3 flavors of your choice for $1.

Their marketing fund is most likely reimbursing the station owner their product cost on the free items they give to you (the cookies probably cost .35 or something, drink and donut even less).
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Re: Death of AM/PM

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: October 12th, 2020, 9:22 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: October 12th, 2020, 1:18 am I never pay for drinks at AMPM, nor donuts, nor 3 pack cookies. I always use the AMPM app and press the check in button. Then you play the scratcher game and you win either free medium drinks, free donut, free sandwich, or free 3 pack of cookies. I almost always win something. You do not even have to make a purchase to redeem the free food. The cashier will just scan your item and then scan your AMPM app barcode. I wonder how they stay in business with all of this free stuff. I usually get a few dollars of gas just to not look like I am getting free stuff everyday. I do notice that much of the time the cookies and donuts are past their sell by dates. They just want to give this stuff away.
The AMPM Cookies are actually quite good though... if fresh. I liked the old loose set up where you could select 3 flavors of your choice for $1.

Their marketing fund is most likely reimbursing the station owner their product cost on the free items they give to you (the cookies probably cost .35 or something, drink and donut even less).
I'd also suspect that many (if not most) people do the same, buying something else while there to get the free stuff. Might not be a large amount, but if the free item draws you in and they get that little other sale they might not have, it may work out to be an overall net gain.
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Re: Death of AM/PM

Post by storewanderer »

BillyGr wrote: October 13th, 2020, 11:22 am
I'd also suspect that many (if not most) people do the same, buying something else while there to get the free stuff. Might not be a large amount, but if the free item draws you in and they get that little other sale they might not have, it may work out to be an overall net gain.
That is the exact argument the franchisors make to the franchisees to convince them to go along with these promotions... it is tough to measure how it plays out. Is it better to offer a free item with a purchase of another item, or discount the items down to a low cost but not free and probably end up collecting a similar amount of money from the customer under either scenario?
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