Grumbling at franchise gas stations
- Thread starter Donald
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I believe all those are corporate stores - ie owned by the same parent company or family. Yes it seems to be a big benefit lately.
All Spinx are owned by the same private / family parent, not franchise which I know your privy to. I agree that the Spinx in Greenville area are very nice. The ones here are not as good IMHO.
QT as well - one private parent company. QT has become my favorite while travelling.
Murphy USA is publicly traded and I believe mostly corporate owned stores.
Seems like the Indy's are dying out.
AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
You're going to live forever if that's unhealthy.
The closest top tier gas is a Valero fuel station that has gone downhill during and since C19 to the point they never refill the receipt tape or paper towels and there's almost never an attendant in the glass box. Go to a Chevron down the road now.
The only one I can find that doesn't anymore is Bryers natural vanilla unless you go to the super niche brands.
All the Bryers other than that one - including there other vanilla's - have corn syrup also.
4wd
$50 site donor 2026
I probably eat it once a month and ignore drama boys …
I once saw someone wash their car with a squeegee.The 2 QTS put out new squeegees every month. Surprised the rednecks don't steal them.
Hey .... it wasn't me.
We have gambling at gas stations and grocery stores here. One of the grocery stores has a bar!
When I hear women talking about how dirty or whatever men are I will often weigh in with an “oh yeah? well I’ve had to clean the women’s bathroom before and y'all are pretty freaking gross too.” That’ll usually end that discussion lol
This is after you are married I assume.
slo town's Chevron restroom essay in post #7 was such a pleasant read.
When I was younger I was going to open up a used car/car repair shop and all the cities mandated if it was a "public place" I had to have a working customer facing bathroom. Maybe the city should know there are no bathrooms there?
I have concluded only honest people follow the law and no one in charge cares about the rest.
Cleaning bathrooms? Or running my mouth to women?
Some localities have laws requiring businesses to have public restrooms if hot food is available, even if from a roller grill. The idea is to give customers a place to wash their hands before handling and eating the food.
Well I know nothing, maybe my dating life would have been better if I said "I clean bathrooms"
Sadly yes, I am responsible now for 4 toilets! 4.5 years in this 2014 house and I finally finished the battle with a pot that was major crusty. Terrible design, secret splash areas left and right that never get water washed. Needed scrubbing powder and stainless pads. Brushes were useless.
Wife laid a bear trap. In I went!
We have one of those situations here.
A "Family" came in and bought both old Swifty fuel stations after they went belly up.
Did total rebuilds on both sites.
Opened the one up north as a Sunoco.
Opened the one on the south side as a Marathon.
Very nice in the beginning.
Now, they are rundown, filthy, ill kept.
The kind of place that you only go to of there are no other options, or the fuel is at a price that it is hard to refuse.
Never had an issue with fuel quality either place though.
Same thing with both of the local Shell stations.
One in particular is the local warehouse for booze, tobacco, vapes, Kratom, etc.
Other one is much more mainstream though.
Both are much cleaner than the Sunoco and the Marathon, however.
A "Family" came in and bought both old Swifty fuel stations after they went belly up.
Did total rebuilds on both sites.
Opened the one up north as a Sunoco.
Opened the one on the south side as a Marathon.
Very nice in the beginning.
Now, they are rundown, filthy, ill kept.
The kind of place that you only go to of there are no other options, or the fuel is at a price that it is hard to refuse.
Never had an issue with fuel quality either place though.
Same thing with both of the local Shell stations.
One in particular is the local warehouse for booze, tobacco, vapes, Kratom, etc.
Other one is much more mainstream though.
Both are much cleaner than the Sunoco and the Marathon, however.
Stewie even decided to go out on a whim and create an exclusive convenience store part from his gas stations and put it on steroids:
https://spinxmarket.com/
And think restroom cleanliness doesn't matter? GVL has their "Flushies" awards for best bathrooms around town. Spinx Market made the list this year:
https://offthegridgreenville.org/guides/2025-flushies-off-the-grid-greenville/
We have some pretty interesting ones around here.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Same exact thing here. Just about every private owned gas station/convivence store is owned? operated? by Middle Easterners who appear to be as interested in selling Head Shop equipment as they are in selling fuel. Majority are 100% unfriendly and act as if they HATE the customers. I still try to be polite if I stop at them which I rarely do. I try to use SHELL gasoline in all of my vehicles as I have done since the mid 1990s. I just found that since going to the SHELL fuel I have never had even one issue with clogged injectors or fuel lines or filter issues. I even had the service manager at the FORD dealer I got my Bronco from in the 1990s tell me he used SHELL gasoline or EXXON only due to their higher cleaning abilities.There are a few places like that here. I suspect the original owners have retired and given the transition to these newer full service stops like Wawa or Sheetz they struggle.
My formerly favorite station - a P66 store where the owner or his wife was almost always there used to serve fried chicken at lunch, and I used to take the kids for their huge selection of ice cream novelties. There is no more fried chicken, not much ice cream either. There is an entire isle of vapes now.
And do drugs in the restroom.
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