Circle K gasoline
- Thread starter Wardonkey
- Start date
I looked through four pages and didn’t see any mention that Alimentation Couche-Tard has owned Circle K since 2003. Makes it interesting since they also own the Valero retail fuel brand as well as Valero's former Corner Store convenience store brand. I'm not quite sure what they did with Corner Store.
Valero Energy still seems to have an influence on the Valero Retail brand. They changed the logo a few years ago and that applies to Valero Energy and retail. The Valero Energy website still lists Valero gas station locations.
I wonder how this affects the relationship between Circle K franchises and Alimentation Couche-Tard.
Valero Energy still seems to have an influence on the Valero Retail brand. They changed the logo a few years ago and that applies to Valero Energy and retail. The Valero Energy website still lists Valero gas station locations.
I wonder how this affects the relationship between Circle K franchises and Alimentation Couche-Tard.
I went to this new Valero/Circle K/BK. The BK was in one end without seating and it’s own cash registers. I’ve seen combo fast food and gas stations. The convince store cashier handled fuel purchases.
Lots of them in the Houston area. There are 10 around me within 5 miles.
Started showing back up about 5 years ago after being gone for over a decade.
My issue with Circle K is they bought out the Flash Foods chain in the southeast.That chain had the best coffee-Cumberland Island a smooth mild medium roast.Circle K replaced the urn type coffee makers with fancy grind and brew stations that serve 3-4 types of coffee.All of which have nasty aftertastes ranging from chemical to rubber inner tube.They brought back Cumberland but it too has a bad aftertaste now.I would guess the temp settings are wrong on the machines or the beans are now roasted at the wrong temps.
Wow. Circle Ks are all over the place in the Austin metro area. They usually sell branded gas though, Valero, Shell, Exxon, etc. More importantly they have .79 cent 44 ounce sodas and frequently carry my drink of choice, Diet Mt Dew.
As for where I normally get gas, Costco more often than not as it's not far away. If it is not convenient to fill up at Costco, I consult GasBuddy. And I always pay at the pump with my GasBuddy fleet card when filling up at any station other than Costco, because it is not a real credit/debit card.
Can that really be pinned on Circle K? I found Flash Foods got purchased by CST Brands (then a spinoff of Valero) in early 2016. Then Alimentation Couche-Tard bought out CST Brands with the deal completed in 2017.
As far as brand names go, they're just brand names sometimes. It sounds like that's just a Flash Foods exclusive brand. They could have just brought back the brand name but went with a different supplier. Sounds like the last remaining Howard Johnson's restaurant. Some had gone there thinking they could relive their experiences from the 1960s, but the reality is that nothing that made it Howard Johnson's back in the 60s is still around.
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2021
- Messages
- 38
All my local Circle K's are BP with "Invigorate"-so I got that going for me 
Not any more, the 44 oz price went up around here. Don't remember what it is now (price is on the cup) but I went into the store with $0.86 and it rang up a dollar and change.
All my local Circle K's are BP with "Invigorate"-so I got that going for me
As far as I can tell, that's actually made for them by BASF. There are a few fuel marketers where it's obvious who makes their additive, since Chevron, Sunoco have their own chemical divisions that list certified detergent additives. And Costco that claims to use a custom Lubrizol additive (or a series).
Basf Corporation
Additive Name |
Invigorate 1 (National Generic Certification) |
Invigorate 3.0 (National Generic Certification) |
I see they have some sort of subscription program at $5.99 a month, although I'm not sure if they have it in all regions.
Circle K launches beverage subscription program for $5.99 per month
Convenience store chain Circle K is launching a beverage subscription program, following in the footsteps of Burger King and Panera Bread.
Starting Wednesday, U.S. customers who pay $5.99 per month can have one tea, coffee, Froster slushy or Polar Pop fountain drink of their choosing every day.
Circle K’s Sip & Save program looks to build loyalty and coax people into its stores again on a regular basis. During the coronavirus pandemic, consumers made fewer trips to convenience stores.
Sales of self-serve beverages took a hit industrywide. Hot dispensed drinks’ sales fell by a third, while cold dispensed drinks shrank by 7.9%, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores.
“We really see this an opportunity to drive traffic at a time that people are just starting to come out of the understandable cocoons that they’ve been in for the last 12-plus months,” said Kevin Lewis, chief marketing officer of Alimentation Couche-Tard, Circle K’s parent company.
Montreal-based Couche-Tard operates more than 7,200 convenience stores across the U.S., including other brands like On the Run and Holiday. The company reported U.S. revenue of $37.8 billion in 2020.
That's been true for a long time. But Top Tier goes beyond them. My 3.8 Jeep is a canary in the coal mine. Run a few tanks of low grade Circle K or Speedway or Thornton's, Kroger, Meijer, Get N Go, or Murphys and it will start to ping. The last few years it has not done that with a steady diet of Top Tier. Our Circle K's locally were mostly Shell until they changed out over the last year or so. Fortunately, I have a Shell station still that is across from a Get N Go, which keeps the Shell cheaper than most of the Circle K's. I also have a Phillips 66 in town and a Mobil staion along one of my commute routes, so I've still got decent access to Top Tier. There is also a Country Mark and a Valero (which I think is Top Tier) along the way, along with a couple of BP's.
Which is fine if you like a little more ethanol in your gas.All my local Circle K's are BP with "Invigorate"-so I got that going for me
Costco used to claim that. At least until they started marketing their own custom additive as using 5x the EPA mandated minimum.
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2021
- Messages
- 38
Is that all it means?
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2021
- Messages
- 38
I thought that if it states MAX 10% Ethanol that is all it can contain?
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2021
- Messages
- 38
Interesting, but does it matter who makes the additives?
Not really. But as you can see by reading comments here, there are a lot of people who are hung up on who makes what and the specific chemicals used. Especially all the questions about using PEA and how much. There’s more than one way, but hearing it here one might think there’s PEA and then there’s everything else.
BP has a non-advertised spec that puts their ethanol blend up to 10.25%. Their theory is that that little boost will increase the octane rating just enough that your car may feel a hair more pep....meaning you'll like their gas better.
Nearly all the brands I load...if I preset the meter to load at 1000 gallons, 100 gallons of that is ethanol. When loading BP gas, the preset @ 1000 gallons, it will send 102 gallons of ethanol. There's another brand that does it too, but I don't remember which one. Obviously one I don't haul a lot.
