Retail Watchers

I imagine some of the fuel in Winnemucca comes from Salt Lake City

I think there may be a fuel terminal in Elko area (maybe Carlin) that is connected via pipeline to a Salt Lake City refinery.

Actually there are 4 refineries-all close in proximity to each other-North of SLC (Marathon, Chevron, Big West, Holly Frontier/Sinclair). Utah has very little crude oil, so l imagine most of it comes to those facilities from Wyoming and Colorado.

Chevron is still the highest priced gas in the San Francisco Bay Area. Just a short distance from the Chevron corporate office in San Ramon, California are many Chevron gas stations at $6.89. These are corporate owned stations and still do decent business. I assume these are all used by Chevron employees or customers with lots of Safeway gas discounts. I would never pay that price unless I had a discount of some kind.

Even Shell is at $6.89. The only cheap gas is Safeway at $5.95 or an independent station at $5.87.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑October 1st, 2022, 9:12 pm Chevron is still the highest priced gas in the San Francisco Bay Area. Just a short distance from the Chevron corporate office in San Ramon, California are many Chevron gas stations at $6.89. These are corporate owned stations and still do decent business. I assume these are all used by Chevron employees or customers with lots of Safeway gas discounts. I would never pay that price unless I had a discount of some kind.

Even Shell is at $6.89. The only cheap gas is Safeway at $5.95 or an independent station at $5.87.

Yes, Chevron keeps its block of corporate stations for a reason, over the years they once had corporate stations in FL, UT, AZ, and they got rid of all those. Of course gas right now in FL is 3.04 around Tampa, when you can sell gas in CA for twice that, there is no way the cost of doing business in CA justifies so much higher of a price, clearly a lot more money is being made in CA. The corporate stations they kept mostly in CA (a few in OR/WA too) were kept as they move high volumes of fuel at very high prices and also do decent store volume. These stores, often on real estate long owned by Chevron, make a ton of money. They are positioned to price fuel high, they do not try to compete on price. The corporate Chevrons don't do that cash price/credit price thing. Their store pricing also tends to be somewhat on the higher side. They have also built a number of new locations over the years to keep their station network fresh. I think the corporate Chevron Stations do a great job from a business perspective, but acknowledge their fuel price is very very high.

Alpha8472 wrote: ↑October 1st, 2022, 9:12 pm Chevron is still the highest priced gas in the San Francisco Bay Area. Just a short distance from the Chevron corporate office in San Ramon, California are many Chevron gas stations at $6.89. These are corporate owned stations and still do decent business. I assume these are all used by Chevron employees or customers with lots of Safeway gas discounts. I would never pay that price unless I had a discount of some kind.

Even Shell is at $6.89. The only cheap gas is Safeway at $5.95 or an independent station at $5.87.

The discounts offered by loyalty grocery cards for Chevron are a joke, especially given Chevron's typical uber high prices. Same with Shell's very high prices. There are MANY tier 1 gas stations that are way cheaper with No reward discounts.

Ralphs + Shell = JOKE
Vons + Chevron = JOKE

veteran+ wrote: ↑October 2nd, 2022, 7:06 am

The discounts offered by loyalty grocery cards for Chevron are a joke, especially given Chevron's typical uber high prices. Same with Shell's very high prices. There are MANY tier 1 gas stations that are way cheaper with No reward discounts.

Ralphs + Shell = JOKE
Vons + Chevron = JOKE

If you are along the path of one of the 5 or however many Ralphs gas stations that exist or one of the 10 or however many F4L gas stations exist in CA, the reward there is likely of some use as they typically have a street price posted equal to Arco and same price for all methods of payment. Pretty useless with Shell (but if you do go to Shell, you can buy a Shell gift card at Ralphs and get more fuel points from doing that; the problem at Shell is you can only pay a transaction with one gift card, so maximizing your discount gets a bit tricky), and also can't split pay at Shell (for instance redeem a $50 gift card then pay them $15 cash to pay one tab for $65 of fuel; you'd have to split into two separate transactions so you'd only get the reward on one of the transactions). I'd prefer if Kroger added a Grocery Reward element similar to Safeway or even just said redeem 100 points for .10 off per gallon or $1 off any purchase in our store.

I agree the Safeway/Vons fuel reward program aligned with Chevron is largely useless. Safeway/Vons in CA charges a .10 credit card price surcharge per gallon and usually isn't exactly the lowest price around for fuel either. The Grocery Reward part of the program strikes me as a better deal there. At least they have that Grocery Reward option.

veteran+ wrote: ↑October 2nd, 2022, 7:06 am Ralphs + Shell = JOKE
Vons + Chevron = JOKE

I also feel on the west coast:
Walmart with Walmart+ = JOKE
Walmart (one in the entire Portland-Vancouver, Wa trade area)
Murphy USA (no where out west as far as I know)
Mobil (RARE)
Exxon (even rarer)

It's strange to see Phillips 66 doesn't partner with anyone (as far as I know). They've had some pretty aggressive app + company card promotions under the P66 shield, less so under 76. I haven't seen a Conoco station in many years so I don't know what their loyalty program looks like.

The one place the rewards program isn't a joke is in Arizona.

Fry's Food has a partnership with Shell and Circle K and there is pretty much a combination of a Fry's, Shell or Circle K station at every major (or every other) major intersection in the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas.

Shell may have slightly more expensive gas but Circle K is generally competitively priced (as are Fry's own fuel centers).

Every Circle K location also participates in the Upside app (which gives cash back for gas purchases) and I've used a combination of Fry's fuel points (for the initial discount) and the Upside app (for cash back) while using a credit card that provided cash back for fuel purchases as well.

arizonaguy wrote: ↑October 3rd, 2022, 4:40 pm The one place the rewards program isn't a joke is in Arizona.

Fry's Food has a partnership with Shell and Circle K and there is pretty much a combination of a Fry's, Shell or Circle K station at every major (or every other) major intersection in the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas.

Shell may have slightly more expensive gas but Circle K is generally competitively priced (as are Fry's own fuel centers).

Every Circle K location also participates in the Upside app (which gives cash back for gas purchases) and I've used a combination of Fry's fuel points (for the initial discount) and the Upside app (for cash back) while using a credit card that provided cash back for fuel purchases as well.

One of the old Jon Flora Fry's programs.

What I have found interesting is Circle K at large does not support the Kroger fuel reward program. Circle K has heavy corporate operated presence like Phoenix in Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and Denver now too.