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Re: Arco- Marathon?

Posted: August 5th, 2022, 12:59 pm
by SamSpade
ARCO is back to marketing as "Top Tier Gas. . . for less" in the PNW.

With the recent large spike in prices (and now decrease) nationwide, they were only 10-20c less a gallon than most other stations in this city, anyway. There also are fewer and fewer people using cash, so the "debit/credit" price is pretty comparable.

Re: Arco- Marathon?

Posted: August 5th, 2022, 3:21 pm
by Brian Lutz
If there's one thing the recent gas price spikes have done around here, they have made it very clear which brands and which stations think they can get away with high prices, mostly because those ones seem to be trying to keep them as high as possible for as long as possible. In particular during the price spike Shell stations were often as much as $.40-.50 more per gallon, and they have also been much slower to bring them back down; In general over the past couple of weeks gas prices (regular) have slowly crept back down under $5 a gallon here, but it seems like most of the Jackson's Shell locations still have prices around the $5.20 mark, and it's not hard to find other Shell stations still priced as high as $5.50.

Most Chevron and 76 stations seem to be hovering around the $5 mark (76 is probably a bit lower overall than Chevron), but there are also a couple of Chevron stations run by the Tulalip Tribes that have gone down to $4.40 (The tribal stations have advantages here in that they aren't paying Washington state gas taxes, and the tribal fuel tax rate is much lower.) Further up I-5 there's a tribal station run by the Stillaguamish Tribe that has gone all the way down to $4.16 (unbranded, but from the tankers I've seen at the station they seem to be suppled by Pilot/Flying J.) On the lower priced side there aren't a lot of Arco stations here, but they seem to be hovering around the $4.70-4.80 price range currently (a bit lower than the Chevrons and Shells), although the one in Marysville has a Marathon at $4.54 and one of the tribal Chevrons at $4.40 on the opposite side of the freeway, at which point it becomes a lot less attractive.

Back before the latest price spikes I would generally use Shell gas in my car because even though the price was higher it wasn't all that much higher than most. It's a lot harder to justify when it's $.50 a gallon more than anyone else though.

Re: Arco- Marathon?

Posted: August 6th, 2022, 1:07 am
by storewanderer
Brian Lutz wrote: August 5th, 2022, 3:21 pm If there's one thing the recent gas price spikes have done around here, they have made it very clear which brands and which stations think they can get away with high prices, mostly because those ones seem to be trying to keep them as high as possible for as long as possible. In particular during the price spike Shell stations were often as much as $.40-.50 more per gallon, and they have also been much slower to bring them back down; In general over the past couple of weeks gas prices (regular) have slowly crept back down under $5 a gallon here, but it seems like most of the Jackson's Shell locations still have prices around the $5.20 mark, and it's not hard to find other Shell stations still priced as high as $5.50.

Most Chevron and 76 stations seem to be hovering around the $5 mark (76 is probably a bit lower overall than Chevron), but there are also a couple of Chevron stations run by the Tulalip Tribes that have gone down to $4.40 (The tribal stations have advantages here in that they aren't paying Washington state gas taxes, and the tribal fuel tax rate is much lower.) Further up I-5 there's a tribal station run by the Stillaguamish Tribe that has gone all the way down to $4.16 (unbranded, but from the tankers I've seen at the station they seem to be suppled by Pilot/Flying J.) On the lower priced side there aren't a lot of Arco stations here, but they seem to be hovering around the $4.70-4.80 price range currently (a bit lower than the Chevrons and Shells), although the one in Marysville has a Marathon at $4.54 and one of the tribal Chevrons at $4.40 on the opposite side of the freeway, at which point it becomes a lot less attractive.
Chevron, Shell, and 76 always seem to be the last to go down on price. The Chevron/Shell run by Jacksons go down before the independent ones (which are supplied by Jacksons) but are still on the high end of the range. I get the pricing with Chevron, they have established a premium quality fuel reputation at least with the CA crowd. Shell seems to talk fuel quality and I know they do take fuel quality very seriously even doing random fuel samples from random stations at random times, however I don't think they have the reputation Chevron does. I don't really understand why 76 is typically an overpriced fuel; it is not known for quality, the stations are generally not the best, it is no wonder that brand has such high turnover.

Re: Arco- Marathon?

Posted: August 6th, 2022, 8:26 am
by veteran+
The highest prices in my area are consistently with Chevron, Mobil and Shell.

Re: Arco- Marathon?

Posted: August 11th, 2022, 9:03 am
by jamcool
BP is beginning to open AmPm stores on the East Coast-the first store is in Brooklyn. At the same time a number of ARCO sites in Phoenix are dropping the AmPm brand-going to the generic “Food Mart” signage. It makes you wonder if Marathon may drop the AmPm license in SoCal and Arizona.

Re: Arco- Marathon?

Posted: August 11th, 2022, 10:17 am
by Alpha8472
It seems like AMPM has more food products than Food Mart. With AMPM you get to use the AMPM app for deals and free items. Food Mart does not use the app and there are no free deals.

There are Food Mart stores in Northern California, but they are small and might just be a tiny cashier room with a minimal selection of snacks and no fountain drinks. Most of the time these Food Mart stores close at 9 PM. AMPM is usually 24 hours.

Re: Arco- Marathon?

Posted: August 11th, 2022, 11:15 pm
by storewanderer
jamcool wrote: August 11th, 2022, 9:03 am BP is beginning to open AmPm stores on the East Coast-the first store is in Brooklyn. At the same time a number of ARCO sites in Phoenix are dropping the AmPm brand-going to the generic “Food Mart” signage. It makes you wonder if Marathon may drop the AmPm license in SoCal and Arizona.
I don't think it is up to Marathon. At this point it is up to the individual station operator in Marathon territory (SoCal, AZ, NV) if they want to keep AM/PM and many of those operators have decided they don't want to deal with it and are dropping it.

What I wonder is if we could see AM/PM align with other gas brands in SoCal, AZ, or NV since so many Arcos are dropping it. Also could we start to see Arco stations with 7-Eleven or Circle K Stores in the future?

I am very curious what BP is doing with AM/PM in the east coast. BP previously had AM/PM in various midwest markets including Chicago and they literally pulled the rug out from under the dealers who had AM/PM stores, stopped support, and gave them a short time period to "debrand" from AM/PM. These dealers did not want to lose AM/PM, rather, BP made the decision for them. It was a money losing proposition for BP to support AM/PM in those markets. AM/PM did not do well by BP's standards (seemed to me like they did fine, and all those dealers seemed happy too) in the Midwest and at the time the thought was AM/PM was a c-store format and concept designed for a discount gas station (Arco). Whereas, BP was more of a premium gas brand, and a different c-store approach/offer was needed to align with the BP format.

Re: Arco- Marathon?

Posted: August 12th, 2022, 10:03 am
by jamcool
BP now owns Midwest c-store chain Thorntons. Unlike the other big oil companies, BP seems to want to expand in the company-owned c-store market (as does Shell). And they are trying to upscale AM-PM.

As for ARCO, there are several convenience store chains that sell ARCO fuel....Giligan's, which is HQd in Montana but has most of its stores in the Prescott (AZ) area, has an ARCO-branded store in Scottsdale (their other stores sell Chevron, 76, or private brand fuel)

Re: Arco- Marathon?

Posted: August 12th, 2022, 1:29 pm
by jamcool
https://www.cspdailynews.com/company-ne ... east-coast

Basically the AM-PMs in the east are a version of the Thorntons format

Re: Arco- Marathon?

Posted: August 12th, 2022, 4:07 pm
by mburb1981
Arco has begun returning to eastern states (Marathon's traditional territory) it retreated from back in the mid-1980s. Among those states is Michigan, where a new Arco has popped up in New Baltimore in what had been a Clark-turned-Valero-turned-Gulf (both Gulf and 76 have exited Michigan for the second time over the past year after their respective reentrances only yielded few stations). Bizarrely, for it's c-store, it still uses the Clark-owned On The Go name.