ARCO comes to Indianapolis

[Pat in Speedway]

I was driving on a side of Indy I’ve not been to in a while and surprised to see an old Speedway station on the south side is now an ARCO. I’d not heard of them being in this part of the country, let alone in town. There’s another one on the east side of Indy. Both of them are former Speedway stations, and the old style Speedways at that. This is the one on the south side that converted to ARCO. There were a few others scattered around Indiana, the ones up north being former Super-Test locations.

 

[Boomer]

Top Tier???

 

[Pat in Speedway]

Top Tier???

Assuming they are, since they’re listed on the Top Tier website. I may go out later and top off there just to see how things look.

 

[skyactiv]

Does it have anything to do with Seven 11 buying Speedway?

 

[TmanP]

Minnesota got some a year or two ago; they seemed to mostly replace Tesoro stations and some independents. They're more concentrated in the northern part of the state, though there are some in the Twin Cities. I've stopped at a couple (Motley and Bemidji, I think), and have no complaints, as expected. These aren't really all too similar the ones in CA, etc - they take credit cards, have normal pumps without an ATM/central payment station, plus they're priced much closer to the market rate. IMHO just another flavor of TT gas for the midwest without the strong discount potential of the ones out west.

 

[Pat in Speedway]

Does it have anything to do with Seven 11 buying Speedway?

That’s my guess. Since the ones I’ve seen are old “weathered” Speedway locations, chances are they were never going to be 7-Eleven. So this is better than a bunch of closed gas stations...plus we get additional top tier locations as well.

 

[y_p_w]

ARCO has a complicated marketing history, especially if it's combined with ampm. In my area the ownership is BP, licensed from Marathon, although BP held on to the ampm trademark.

Retail | Marathon Petroleum Operations

Marathon Petroleum keeps Americans' cars moving with gas stations all across the US. From Arco stations, to Speedways, and even Marathon's own branded gas stations, learn how MPC's gas stations help fuel America.

www.marathonpetroleum.com

California | Where we operate | Home

bp’s retail stations in California serve more than 640,000 customers per day, and bp is the largest supplier of renewable natural gas (RNG) to the California transportation sector

www.bp.com

But this is the map they show. Not sure who has the license in the Upper Midwest (plus Florida). They're still using the Tesoro name though, but it's probably Tesoro/Marathon.

 

[JohnnyG]

Yeah, I think Marathon is dumping the Speedway brand, and has been for a few years. This was actually started as an Ashland Oil brand in the midwest, but after the merger, and eventual total sale, they ended up with too many stations.

 

[bbhero]

I thought we are talking about our ARCO from here on the bobistheoilguy site ..

 

[928]

ARCO is a no frills company - no credit cards - cash or debit only. Quality gas ,

 

[y_p_w]

ARCO is a no frills company - no credit cards - cash or debit only. Quality gas ,

Base fuel is more or less a generic/fungible commodity. There is a ton of horse trading going on in the gasoline market.

However, it gets kind of weird since franchises have a certain amount of flexibility. There was a nearby ARCO station that took credit cards at same as cash price for years, but eventually they discontinued that. For some years some stations had pay stations outside where one could select the pump number and pay with cash rather than going inside. If there was any change due, the customer had to go inside. Debit usually has a service charge.

Here's one that actually has credit prices. I know this one because it's near San Francisco Airport, and sometimes I hang around the area when I'm picking up someone.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

And yes I remember when ARCO pretty much switched over to cash/debit. They had a commercial that looked like a giant ARCO credit card destroyed by a wrecking ball. Their emphasis was on consistency lower prices as a result of not having to pay credit card fees.

 

[sloinker]

ARCO used to have the worst gas a decade or two ago. My vehicles would get less fuel mileage and pre-ignite when I used their regular. Glad to hear they have gotten better.

 

[DuckRyder]

I thought we are talking about our ARCO from here on the bobistheoilguy site ..

Me too...

I don't think I have ever actually seen an ARCO station.

 

[TmanP]

ARCO is a no frills company - no credit cards - cash or debit only. Quality gas ,

I know many of them out west are that way, but all of them I've seen in MN do accept credit cards (and for the same price as cash/debit - no differential pricing at the ARCOs I've seen here). It's kind of interesting, though - totally different approach to business, it seems.