Discussion: Convenience stores / gasoline retailers

Alpha8472
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Re: Discussion: Convenience stores / gasoline retailers

Post by Alpha8472 »

There is a relatively new looking Sam's Club gas in Vacaville, California. It has 6 gas pumps and no convenience store. That one is run by Sam's Club. Somehow Sam's gas is not as popular as Costco gas.
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Re: Discussion: Convenience stores / gasoline retailers

Post by wnetmacman »

Alpha8472 wrote: April 29th, 2021, 1:40 pm There is a relatively new looking Sam's Club gas in Vacaville, California. It has 6 gas pumps and no convenience store. That one is run by Sam's Club. Somehow Sam's gas is not as popular as Costco gas.
All of the Sam's Club gas is run by the company. You have to have a membership. Almost every club has one.
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Re: Discussion: Convenience stores / gasoline retailers

Post by storewanderer »

wnetmacman wrote: April 29th, 2021, 1:46 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: April 29th, 2021, 1:40 pm There is a relatively new looking Sam's Club gas in Vacaville, California. It has 6 gas pumps and no convenience store. That one is run by Sam's Club. Somehow Sam's gas is not as popular as Costco gas.
All of the Sam's Club gas is run by the company. You have to have a membership. Almost every club has one.
There was a time in the past where Sam's Gas was a .05 upcharge for non members and open to the public. That changed years ago and they are members only unless local law dictates otherwise.

There are some some Sam's Gas located in shared Sam's/Wal Mart parking lots which are open to the public with the .05 non-member upcharge including in Reno, NV and Roseville, CA. These stations are controlled by Sam's and run by Sam's hours (not great).
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Re: Discussion: Convenience stores / gasoline retailers

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: April 29th, 2021, 11:39 pm
There was a time in the past where Sam's Gas was a .05 upcharge for non members and open to the public. That changed years ago and they are members only unless local law dictates otherwise.
In 2008, I visited Wichita, Kansas. I noticed a lack of major brand gas stations in the area, and saw a lot of unbranded gas stations. There was also a Sam's Club near the hotel I stayed at. As I recall, the posted price was for everybody, and I ended up using that station for my rental car the whole trip. (I did not have a membership, and have no Sam's Club locations near me, so have never had a membership) Obviously this has changed. I wonder though if they are like Costco where non-members can buy gas and other items with a gift card.

Walmart has relatively few locations with gas in my area. I know of only one newer location on Fourth Plain in the Orchards area of Vancouver, WA. They once sold gas at the Hazel Dell store (which is still a non-supercenter) but ended up taking the station out completely.
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Re: Discussion: Convenience stores / gasoline retailers

Post by Alpha8472 »

There is a Sam's Club in Concord, California that does not have gas. Compared to Costco, the Sam's Club has very little business. I did not renew my membership at Sam's Club because Costco is a better value with cheap gas.

The only reason I even signed up for Sam's Club was their 45 gift card for opening up a membership. It paid for the $45 membership.

Cheap gas does bring in more customers. It is to a store's advantage to have a discount gas station in front.

That Sam's Club is doing so poorly that it looks like it might close. It looks almost like a Costco in every other respect.
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Re: Discussion: Convenience stores / gasoline retailers

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: April 30th, 2021, 1:12 pm There is a Sam's Club in Concord, California that does not have gas. Compared to Costco, the Sam's Club has very little business. I did not renew my membership at Sam's Club because Costco is a better value with cheap gas.

The only reason I even signed up for Sam's Club was their 45 gift card for opening up a membership. It paid for the $45 membership.

Cheap gas does bring in more customers. It is to a store's advantage to have a discount gas station in front.

That Sam's Club is doing so poorly that it looks like it might close. It looks almost like a Costco in every other respect.
I keep getting $20 gift card upon renewal at Sam's Club so I keep renewing there. I probably would not renew, if it wasn't for that. I'm not sure it is worth the $25 membership. The prices aren't really any better than Wal Mart on consumable goods generally speaking. Some items I used to buy there before the pandemic seem to no longer be available or had a significant price increase.

In Reno the Sam's Gas always matches the Costco gas price.
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Favorite truck stop chain?

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Extending this topic to include truck stop chains. My favorite is definitely Love's. At the Love's I've been to, they always seem to have nice employees and lower gas prices than Flying J/Pilot.
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Re: Discussion: Convenience stores / gasoline retailers

Post by Brian Lutz »

Don't visit truck stops often, but the TA locations I've been to have generally been pretty nice, although at least on the roads I take trips on there aren't many of them (the one in Boise is the main one I stop at.) There's a relatively new Pilot location in Ellensburg WA we will stop at occasionally which is also pretty clean and the gas prices are decent (although that may be mostly because gas prices east of the Cascades are generally cheaper than in the Seattle metro area.).
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Re: Favorite truck stop chain?

Post by veteran+ »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: May 4th, 2021, 9:44 am Extending this topic to include truck stop chains. My favorite is definitely Love's. At the Love's I've been to, they always seem to have nice employees and lower gas prices than Flying J/Pilot.
I don't know about your observations but I find fewer and fewer Truck Stops AND "rest areas" around the nation's highways and freeways.

I would imagine that is not good for truck drivers and road trip warriors.
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Re: Favorite truck stop chain?

Post by pseudo3d »

veteran+ wrote: May 4th, 2021, 12:03 pm
retailfanmitchell019 wrote: May 4th, 2021, 9:44 am Extending this topic to include truck stop chains. My favorite is definitely Love's. At the Love's I've been to, they always seem to have nice employees and lower gas prices than Flying J/Pilot.
I don't know about your observations but I find fewer and fewer Truck Stops AND "rest areas" around the nation's highways and freeways.

I would imagine that is not good for truck drivers and road trip warriors.
The roadside parks are definitely disappearing but I haven't seen any outright truck stop closures in my neck of the woods recently, and Love's, QuikTrip, Buc-ee's, and Flying J still expand.
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