Texaco Rebranding To Chevron

[Super S]

I notice another similarly run down long time recently debranded Texaco near there which I suspect also was "never Shell" and stayed Texaco all along at 3803 Ocean Beach Highway in Longview.

When I first moved to this area, that station was an Exxon. (That brand is no longer in this area) Not as clear on the brand history there, but I think it might have taken on BP and/or 76 branding before becoming Texaco, but am not sure what other brands it had before becoming Texaco.

[babs]

How much branding matter with gas stations these days? I've seen some gas stations change branding every few years. I'm going to guess price and location matter more than the brand. I always buy my gas at Costco so I'll admit I don't go to any of these branded gas stations personally.

[mbz321]

How much branding matter with gas stations these days? I've seen some gas stations change branding every few years. I'm going to guess price and location matter more than the brand. I always buy my gas at Costco so I'll admit I don't go to any of these branded gas stations personally.

I don't think the vast majority of people really care anymore. Most of us understand now that gas all comes from the same refineries and the only difference are additives that have a negligible difference. My area (Southeastern PA) is pretty much all Wawa, Sunoco, or Lukoil with some other minor players peppered in (including club stores, supermarket gas stations, brands that are sort-of brands like 'Liberty', etc). In the last few years, I've seen a bunch of brands enter the area that never were here before, or at least not in several decades (Conoco/Philips, Sinclair, etc.). A lot of brands, even Sunoco, have loyalty programs, their own credit cards, and all that, but none of the benefits really seem that great especially since they rarely have the lowest price.

Personally, I only drive slightly out of my way for Exxon (few and far between in my area) because I found a bit of a 'loophole' in the Acme/Safeway gas program (Acme only has two fuel stations of their own AFAIK, one in PA, and one in DE), which Exxon is a partner in my region, and I've been getting $1 off a gallon every time for like a few years now . Otherwise, I'd be getting gas at Costco.

[storewanderer]

How much branding matter with gas stations these days? I've seen some gas stations change branding every few years. I'm going to guess price and location matter more than the brand. I always buy my gas at Costco so I'll admit I don't go to any of these branded gas stations personally.

I don't think the vast majority of people really care anymore. Most of us understand now that gas all comes from the same refineries and the only difference are additives that have a negligible difference. My area (Southeastern PA) is pretty much all Wawa, Sunoco, or Lukoil with some other minor players peppered in (including club stores, supermarket gas stations, brands that are sort-of brands like 'Liberty', etc). In the last few years, I've seen a bunch of brands enter the area that never were here before, or at least not in several decades (Conoco/Philips, Sinclair, etc.). A lot of brands, even Sunoco, have loyalty programs, their own credit cards, and all that, but none of the benefits really seem that great especially since they rarely have the lowest price.

Personally, I only drive slightly out of my way for Exxon (few and far between in my area) because I found a bit of a 'loophole' in the Acme/Safeway gas program (Acme only has two fuel stations of their own AFAIK, one in PA, and one in DE), which Exxon is a partner in my region, and I've been getting $1 off a gallon every time for like a few years now . Otherwise, I'd be getting gas at Costco.

I don't pay much attention to gas brand anymore and go mostly based on price. I think it is better to buy fuel at "corporate operated" stations but the US oil companies run very few stations as corporate operations in the US. So that leaves these things like the grocers, warehouse clubs, Wawa, Quik Trip, Speedway, etc. as the "corporate operated" stations...

I wonder who is "eating" that extra $1 - Acme, the Exxon network that processes the discount, or the individual station owner. The fact that nobody is noticing/fixing it is funny.

There is another Acme with fuel conveniently located in Centreville, MD.

[mbz321]

I wonder who is "eating" that extra $1 - Acme, the Exxon network that processes the discount, or the individual station owner. The fact that nobody is noticing/fixing it is funny.

There is another Acme with fuel conveniently located in Centreville, MD.

I'd think that Safeway (and others that have fuel programs with stations that aren't their own) somehow sends reimbursement to these stations..I would imagine its somehow all handled automatically.

(And not so much of a loophole, but I found a rather generic phone number that no matter when I use it (I fill up about every week and a half) there is $1/gallon discount on it. Idk if its somehow linked to a store somehow or what the deal is, but nobody is definitely spending that much on their own every week to hit that reward).

Ok, I guess Acme has three of their own branded stations, lol. I think they all came about during the original Albertsons ownership and they never really added any more

[storewanderer]

I wonder who is "eating" that extra $1 - Acme, the Exxon network that processes the discount, or the individual station owner. The fact that nobody is noticing/fixing it is funny.

There is another Acme with fuel conveniently located in Centreville, MD.

I'd think that Safeway (and others that have fuel programs with stations that aren't their own) somehow sends reimbursement to these stations..I would imagine its somehow all handled automatically.

(And not so much of a loophole, but I found a rather generic phone number that no matter when I use it (I fill up about every week and a half) there is $1/gallon discount on it. Idk if its somehow linked to a store somehow or what the deal is, but nobody is definitely spending that much on their own every week to hit that reward).

Ok, I guess Acme has three of their own branded stations, lol. I think they all came about during the original Albertsons ownership and they never really added any more

Yeah, that generic phone number thing... Don't do that at a Safeway operated station- that is something their loss prevention has tracked from time to time, pulled cameras, license plates, etc. There was a time when they'd periodically shut those numbers off, then people would quickly sign up again with those numbers... rinse and repeat... At these far flung dealer stations nobody is going to be able to track anything and Safeway has no access to the cameras of a random Chevron or Exxon dealer. Their only recourse is to shut the number off.

The thing is nobody is going to call Safeway Corporate and claim 415-555-1212 or 888-888-8888 or 303-867-5309 or whatever is their loyalty card and someone else used their fuel points... because Safeway Corporate will shut that down as fake info immediately.

These chains could implement a PIN etc. if they really wanted to tighten this up. I notice the Exxon rewards card has a PIN if you use your phone number (like its predecessor Plenti), but if you use the physical card, it does not require a PIN and you can redeem with just the card swipe.

The station gets reimbursement through the payment network, yes.

I think Kroger has done something so these generic numbers still work to get discounts at checkout but no longer earn any loyalty points. Same for the "store phone number" as most Kroger operations have a store card tied to the store phone number.

[ClownLoach]

I did see an intact Texaco station in Vancouver, WA last week. Didn't exactly look like a prize and had some no-name local C-store attached. I think I saw another in Seattle area too.

[Super S]

I did see an intact Texaco station in Vancouver, WA last week. Didn't exactly look like a prize and had some no-name local C-store attached. I think I saw another in Seattle area too.

This is what I am mostly noticing with Texaco branded stations. There are a handful of the no-name stores which have rebranded to Chevron, but what I have seen is that the current Texaco locations tend to not be as well run as the ones with Chevron.

[jamcool]

Nowadays fuel distributors offer multiple fuel brands to their clients-independent dealers and small convenience store operators. Each brand has its own rules and requirements for a dealer to meet in order to sell their brand, like upkeep of facilities and cleanliness. Chevron, Shell and Mobil have tougher requirements than other brands including the requirement of electronic pay systems.

[ClownLoach]

Nowadays fuel distributors offer multiple fuel brands to their clients-independent dealers and small convenience store operators. Each brand has its own rules and requirements for a dealer to meet in order to sell their brand, like upkeep of facilities and cleanliness. Chevron, Shell and Mobil have tougher requirements than other brands including the requirement of electronic pay systems.

Chevron is Texaco, Texaco is Chevron. They are the same and the company does not consider one brand to be premium, another lower end. For a while there were many corporate Texaco stations that were exact clones of a Chevron except painted black and red, even the standard Chevron Extra Mile store and the Techron branding for additives. But it does seem that they are mostly phasing these out as discussed here, at the same time Texaco became their primary Hawaiian brand.

Every now and then you see a poor condition, run down franchise Chevron too. I saw a few in Washington last week. I would imagine that Chevron pushes these hard to leave, I saw a couple little 2 pump Chevrons that had just been converted to 76 driving around and they still had banners for signs and decals covering the Chevron logo.

However, long before the Chevron-Texaco merger, my observation was Texaco stations were usually all franchises and poorly maintained. I remember a station in OC on Brookhurst that still had the rotating number pumps in the early 90s and an attendant had to go out and reset the pump with some kind of tool after each customer. Everyone else was already digital.

Interestingly, Chevron does have a new slogan just for "Texaco with Techron": Forever In Drive.