TA Troutdale, OR was also a Burns Bros. TA Mill City, NV was also a Burns Bros. The TA Sparks, NV was originally a 76 Truck Stop (Tosco owned some truck stops, went down in flames).Super S wrote: ↑February 21st, 2023, 10:16 pm
A couple years ago I stopped at the TA travel center in Boise, and was kinda surprised that the restaurant didn't even open until 9AM. Maybe this was due to a lack of staffing due to COVID, I am not sure.
That Boise location actually has a long history as a truck stop...was originally Grant's, then Burns Brothers took over in the 1980s. They have always had a restaurant in some form there.
There was also a small Burns Bros. in Rye Patch (Lovelock), NV. This site had TA branding for a very short time... then TA dumped the site off and whoever took over seemed to have no money for signs and the place looked abandoned for years but was open. Eventually Chevron put branding on the site and it has been spiffed up a little.
Those two TA in Mill City and Rye Patch had Arco gasoline but they did not have pay at the pump and were a real pain to deal with for a car fuel purchase. Mill City got pay at the pump in probably 2010.
I recall also going to TA Troutdale at some point around 2008 and it also did not have pay at the pump (this was in OR where gas was full serve) and you had to take a slip inside where they ran your credit card (they had 3 different terminals to process the transaction- a cash register, a credit card machine, and a separate machine that controlled the gas pump) then after you paid they stapled one of the receipts to the slip and you presented that to the attendant outside who pumped your fuel. They refused to turn the pump on for a "fill up" and said they'd refund whatever you didn't pump in cash (violation of the credit card network rules but whatever) but of course you had to go back inside for that.
TA at some point around 2010-2012 got rid of their General Managers to save money and things started to get real interesting. Not long after that they realized there needed to be a way to handle complaints. Evidently they had no money for a customer service department either. So they were for a while printing the phone number to the "DM" on all receipts to contact with complaints and it was literally the cell phone number of the District Manager. And those calls were always answered immediately. This is when you know a company has serious operational problems but really wants to own up to the problems.
TA has definitely improved over the years... they are a lot better in recent years.