7-Eleven Owner to Buy Marathon’s Speedway for $21 Billion

It's a bit bizarre from here as Marathon bought the local Noco refinery a few years back and took over all of the local Noco convenience stores and gas stations, so most are actually newly remodeled. The 7/11's here mostly sell Marathon gas and are basically the direct competitor of Speedway, owned by the same company as Sunoco apparently. I tend to avoid Speedway gas as not only is it not top tier, but but the Speedway knobs lie about top tier not offering advantages and it is no cheaper than the local top tier offerings...
 
How much different is a Slurpee from a Speedy Freeze ? If I'm not mistaken, maybe a Slurpee is more syrupy with minimal ice texture vs crushed ice with some flavoring.
A Speedy Freeze is a frozen carbonated beverage, made with special syrup & frozen under CO2 pressure, when dispensed it expands to twice its volume, like frozen foam. Not sure a Slurpee is different (disclaimer:I work on these machines for a living).
 
Thing is with Speedway, to some degree to them, selling gas is just a side gig. Their real focus is on the store and what they sell inside. In fact, there slogan is "The convenient stores of Speedway".

Back when I worked for Ashland, the creator of the Speedway/Superamerica brand, they used to tell us:
"Markup on a gallon of gasoline is pennies, markup on a Twinkie is like $.25!" What would you rather sell?
Anyway, gasoline at Speedway will likely stay the same fine quality it has always been. The suppliers will likely stay the same, as will the additive packages.
 
How much different is a Slurpee from a Speedy Freeze ? If I'm not mistaken, maybe a Slurpee is more syrupy with minimal ice texture vs crushed ice with some flavoring.
7-11 licensed the rights to make Slurpee from the company that owns the Icee trademark. Not sure if that license is still in force.

I had a local Burger King that used to sell Icee, but later just switched to a generic "frozen drink" name. They didn't change their equipment and it was pretty much the same.
 
All the Hess stations here got bought out by speedway. Now looks like they're going to be 7-11s.

Circle K bought out all the Nice N' Easy stations too. That's one I agree with, they did a nice job of renovating all of the Circle Ks.
 
Why are half of the dispensers/flavors always out of order it seems ? 🤪
Because Speedway took the maintenance & repair of their machines back a few years ago, first ICEE serviced them (& sold them a bunch of theirs), and now Speedway maintenance is (attempting, poorly) to keep them running. We mainly work on other equipment, but 5-15 years ago Speedway was our biggest customer.
 
Back when I worked for Ashland, the creator of the Speedway/Superamerica brand, they used to tell us:
"Markup on a gallon of gasoline is pennies, markup on a Twinkie is like $.25!" What would you rather sell?
Anyway, gasoline at Speedway will likely stay the same fine quality it has always been. The suppliers will likely stay the same, as will the additive packages.
That needs a sarcasm font-Speedway might be the worst quality gasoline & diesel you could buy, at some of the highest prices around. Losing Speedy Rewards will be bad, but ALL drivers will benefit from losing “Greedway” predatory fuel pricing. Hard to believe parent company Marathon actually sells Top Tier!
 
Speedway might be the worst quality gasoline & diesel you could buy
I have no issue with Speedway gas and while it may not be top tier, I've seen "tests" with it and it's perfectly good fuel. Not the best but certainly not garbage fuel. What I dislike about them, and I've stopped buying fuel from them as often as I used to, is them jacking their prices up substantially in single jumps (many times, a $0.60 jump in an afternoon).
 
I won't be buying gas at a 7-Eleven until they install credit card chip readers in their gas pumps. They have a reputation for having credit card skimmers installed in their pumps, they are not doing anything about it, and they just don't care. Whenever they find skimmers in gas pumps around here it is almost always at a 7-Eleven. Furthermore, they are building new gas stations with new gas pumps and they still don't have chip readers, even though the credit card companies have required them to do so and gave them two extensions to get it done. I have been skimmed twice, at two of their stations, never again.

Are your 7-11s Exxon? If so, apply for their gas card, and install the app on your phone. This allows you to start the pump from inside your car at any Exxon station. Don't even have to fiddle with your wallet. I LOVE this thing.
 
There aren't many 7-11 around here but lots of Speedways. Anyone who frequents both, how does the store item pricing compare? Speedway is one of the lowest cost for most things. Then again, every now and then one speedway will have a different price on an item than a different one 2 miles up the road.

My closest speedway doesn't set gas prices for the area at all, instead right next door is a Thornton's that always drops in price first then everyone else nearby has to follow. Result is they and the Speedway next to them, tend to have gas 5 cents cheaper than 3 miles in any direction, though I usually buy at Krogers because of a generous points system, usually saving at least 25 cents a gallon.
 
Hey Bullwinkle, is the terminal still over there on River Road? Probably supplies ALL of the stations in that area. Top Tier too. Pipeline heads from there up to Columbus and on up into Michigan. Hard to believe it's the same product isn't it?
Kinda makes you wonder about that marketing ploy of top tier.
 
Top Tier too. (snip) Hard to believe it's the same product isn't it?
It is all the same product in the huge, above-ground storage tanks. It only becomes Speedway-spec fuel or Marathon-spec or Sunoco-spec as it's filled into the tanker truck that takes it to the station.
 
Yes, I know. But it seems that a lot of people don't understand fungible barrels and somehow think that anything "NOT" Top Tier is "bad gas".
Just not possible. ALL of the important specifications for gasoline are in it just the way it comes from the refinery.
Octane rating, distillation, sulfur content, RVP, none of that can be influenced by downstream additives, regardless of the maker or the amount used.
 
Full circle in this area. Superamerica took over when 7/11 went through bankruptcy back in the late 80's here in Minnesota. We haven't had 7/11 here since. Back when Ashland owned the Superamerica and Speedway channels...

Superamerica's here became Speedways in the last round of store and refinery sales to Marathon. To be blunt, their stores have suffered from years of neglect in this market, and while they have a ton of locations, Kwik Trip and Holiday (now a Circle K company) are typically nicer and more updated. When they stopped selling top tier gas, I stopped buying.

The comments about keeping their stores up have not been the case here, though Speedway has not been here very long, and the Superamerica brand went through several ownership changes...
 
The comments about keeping their stores up have not been the case here
Here's an example of a renovated location (and they also had to conform to local zoning/building aesthetics)

They still have locations like this one too: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.654...4!1sNEKBeCRvHiG0zN_8-Jth7Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
These are small and just jam-packed on the inside.
 
To be fair, in Minnesota, the stores that were Superamerica's were converted to Speedways. And to be blunt, they had suffered from years of shifting ownership. They were sold by Marathon (who had bought out Ashland's share) to Northern Tier Energy, who was controlled by private equity firms, in 2004. They sold out to Western Refining, who sold out to Tesoro, who became Andeavor, who sold to Marathon. That brought things full circle.

Superamerica did little to nothing to invest in its stores. In their rebranding to Speedway, they put lipstick on the stores they bought, but their offerings are still way behind Kwik Trip and Holiday.
 
Full circle in this area. Superamerica took over when 7/11 went through bankruptcy back in the late 80's here in Minnesota. We haven't had 7/11 here since. Back when Ashland owned the Superamerica and Speedway channels...

Superamerica's here became Speedways in the last round of store and refinery sales to Marathon. To be blunt, their stores have suffered from years of neglect in this market, and while they have a ton of locations, Kwik Trip and Holiday (now a Circle K company) are typically nicer and more updated. When they stopped selling top tier gas, I stopped buying.

The comments about keeping their stores up have not been the case here, though Speedway has not been here very long, and the Superamerica brand went through several ownership changes...
Most of my work as a courier has been delivering construction tools, supplies, and materials. Lately I've been delivering to a lot of Speedway stations, for instance Lexington & I-94, Cedar Ave & 46th St, and Snelling Ave north of I-94. Also to Kwik Trip stations including the one at Cedar Ave and Dodd Rd in Lakeville.

Two points: One, lots of Speedway stores have been upgraded since it took over from SuperAmerica.

Edit: I would add that the biggest changes to the retail fuel market in the Twin Cities and Minnesota at large have been the expansion of both Casey's General Stores and HyVee. Casey's has added a lot of much-needed competition.



And, Two, the entire Speedway company has been purchased, not just the stores. So I would anticipate that they will continue to be branded as Speedway and not rebranded as 7-Eleven stores.
 
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