Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

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storewanderer
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Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: October 9th, 2019, 2:05 am The Speedway Express gas stations appear to be smaller gas stations. They either do not have convenience stores or have a small convenience store. I noticed pamphlets regarding the rewards program, but the cashier did not have any rewards cards. I have yet to see a full size Speedway in this area. I did notice some Mobil and Exxon stations that are still Mobil and Exxon branded. They appear to be smaller stations and close early. Perhaps they are not corporate run stations. I hope that they do not convert to Speedway as these locations are the only place that I can use my Mobil credit card.

I stopped going to AMPM once they stopped carrying the Orange Whip drink. It was my only reason for going there. I used to go to the prototype store in Concord, California. It is the nicest one in the area, and used to be the photo on the ARCO website.
Speedway Express appear to be corporate owned sites, but leased to individual operators. So, gas controlled by Speedway, but store controlled by an independent operator. I've never heard of this until California. I wonder of they're having trouble terminating some of these site operator agreements.

Previously Speedway was only used on corporate stores...

Probably should have reflagged these sites back to USA Gasoline... Burney actually reflagged from USA to this Speedway Express thing. Burney is still being run by Anabi Oil.
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Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Post by Alpha8472 »

Now it makes sense. The Speedway Express stores have not changed much in regard to what they are offering in their convenience stores. There are no new soda machines and very little to no Speedway products. The Speedway Express stores are also not doing the 10 cent gas discount and the cashiers are not even bothering to mention the rewards card. These are a lower quality Speedway.
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Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

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Alpha8472 wrote: October 30th, 2019, 10:38 am Now it makes sense. The Speedway Express stores have not changed much in regard to what they are offering in their convenience stores. There are no new soda machines and very little to no Speedway products. The Speedway Express stores are also not doing the 10 cent gas discount and the cashiers are not even bothering to mention the rewards card. These are a lower quality Speedway.
Yeah I am really surprised with this Speedway Express thing. Speedway is a convenience store chain. Yet these convenience stores are not Speedway Stores, just the gas pumps are Speedway pumps. This is why the store still says "Food Mart" on the building.

I also see the location in Susanville is this "Speedway Express" thing and still run by Anabi Oil. This is a full c-store, and also has a few pump spaces for trucks. Susanville is saturated with gas stations and I don't think this location performs particularly well.

It appears there is zero effort out on the gas pumps at "Speedway Express" to drive traffic into the store. No promotions are posted, nothing advertising in-store items, nothing. Conversely at the standard Speedway there is a lot of marketing out at the pumps for the store.

I also wonder how these operators feel about running this. It would seem a Shell or Mobil branded gas station has a better chance at driving traffic than "Speedway Express branded gas" has. But most of these operators signed onto operate these sites when the sites were branded USA Gasoline which was another generic brand, so maybe it is a like for like.
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Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Post by Alpha8472 »

Shell or Mobil would bring in many more customers. The Speedway Express gas stations are definitely not as busy as they were when they were Shell or Mobil. The few Shell stations that are left, have lowered their prices and are busier than ever.

The true full sized Speedway I visit does do reasonably good business still. It is just as busy as when it was Mobil. The 10 cent gas discount is very popular with customers and the convenience store is very busy. The gas pumps have TV screens that show commercials advertising various specials and it really draws attention to the convenience store.
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Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Post by storewanderer »

Finally came across one of these "Speedway Express" locations today.

This one was being run by Anabi Oil. I guess it previously had Shell branding. Zero change inside the store (still had USA fixtures on the walls), actually the only thing in the store that said Speedway was the name tag the employee was wearing.

Speedy Rewards Card appears to work here but does not appear to do anything. They also did not have any Speedy Rewards Card program information or cards.

Pending on my credit card for the store purchase is "TESORO IN STORE" and for the fuel is "TESORO." So, not even on Marathon's system. They had some generic/no name signs up showing that they accept all major credit cards and promising a competitive fuel price; these signs looked very similar to the signs that appeared on many former SoCal Thrifty stations years ago when Tesoro got those leases and rebranded those stations to USA (that was a pretty brief moment).
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Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Post by Bagels »

Speedway has had a ton of job postings up for various Orange County, CA locations for quite awhile, so I assume SoCal conversions are coming soon and these will be full Speedway. These stations are currently branded not only ass Shell and USA Gasoline, but also ARCO, so it appears the conversions will be strategic.

Speedway has been slowly rolling out its "Speedy Cafe" concept. The food is made-to-order (you can order ahead of time via phone or their app), and is actually better than most fast food. The menu is fairly extensive, and prices are cheap. I got a chicken sandwich, bag of chips and a soda for $5 -- it was WAY better than the standard Subway sandwich, and for half the price. And the Speedy Rewards program (which has been heavily diluted in recent years) gives you your seventh or eighth sandwich for free.

I'm crossing my fingers that these will make their way here. I'm sure prices will be higher, but it's hard to find a cheap, healthy meal...
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Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Post by Alpha8472 »

I have seen only prepackaged sandwiches at my local Speedway. The prices of gas have fallen at Speedway Express to just a few cents higher than Costco gas. It is a very good deal, but still not Top Tier gas. The other nearby gas stations in the area are lowering prices but are still higher than Speedway. Speedway is competitive.
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Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: November 17th, 2019, 7:21 pm Speedway has had a ton of job postings up for various Orange County, CA locations for quite awhile, so I assume SoCal conversions are coming soon and these will be full Speedway. These stations are currently branded not only ass Shell and USA Gasoline, but also ARCO, so it appears the conversions will be strategic.

Speedway has been slowly rolling out its "Speedy Cafe" concept. The food is made-to-order (you can order ahead of time via phone or their app), and is actually better than most fast food. The menu is fairly extensive, and prices are cheap. I got a chicken sandwich, bag of chips and a soda for $5 -- it was WAY better than the standard Subway sandwich, and for half the price. And the Speedy Rewards program (which has been heavily diluted in recent years) gives you your seventh or eighth sandwich for free.

I'm crossing my fingers that these will make their way here. I'm sure prices will be higher, but it's hard to find a cheap, healthy meal...
I hope you are right but I find it strange they stopped conversions at Bakersfield and are now focusing on NV/UT. They also have not taken over any new liquor licenses in CA from multi site operator locations (they are doing this under the name Western Refining Retail Inc.) now in about a month which is odd to me.

Also as of yesterday still no Speedway cups for coffee/soda in NorCal. Just generic stuff. Lots of new equipment, though...
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Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Post by storewanderer »

So in San Diego they have stations that are keeping Shell gas branding but switching the convenience store branding to Speedway.

Has Speedway ever been co-branded with another oil brand before?

I believe the impacted sites are the old Motiva Texaco sites (these were at one time corporate owned sites by Texaco or Shell) which I think went to Tesoro around 2003. I wonder if they are somehow stuck in a branding agreement where they have to keep Shell on these.

Speedway just got done ripping the Shell brand off many sites in the southwest and in Salt Lake City. Good riddance to Shell. I hope they are not changing their mind on cutting ties with that overpriced gas brand.
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Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Post by marshd1000 »

Outside the Renton, WA Walmart there was a USA gas station/c store that has been branded as Mobil the past few years. Both the store and pumps are now Speedway.
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