How One's Perceptions are Shaped by Where One Lives

[JayhawkCO]

Sinclair - never heard of it.

This one is surprising too.  I guess they're based out of Utah, but they still are around the Midwest quite a bit.  Never seen the green dinosaur?

Chris

[webny99]

When I search Phillips 66 locations in this area, all the Citgo and Kwik Fill locations come up.

QuikTrip - is this the same as Kwik Trip? I have heard of and been to the latter, mostly because it's so common in Minnesota.

Ah, only someone who travels to Minnesota would ask that!   
No, they aren't.

In that case, I have heard of QuikTrip, but not been there, at least to my knowledge.

Sinclair - never heard of it.

This one is surprising too.  I guess they're based out of Utah, but they still are around the Midwest quite a bit.  Never seen the green dinosaur?

I don't think so, no. Most of my Midwest travels have been in OH, MI, WI, MN, and ND and it doesn't look like there's many locations that far north (or east, in the case of OH and MI).

[Rothman]

Phillips 66 - never heard of it.

Phillips 66 - Y, but they appear to be diminishing?

This has surprised me.  They're all over the place around here.

There was one in Hadley, MA that I believe recently switched brands.  They're rare up here.

[SkyPesos]

The two places I spent the most time in are Cincinnati and St Louis, so in addition to the Y/N, I'll mark a (CIN) for one I've only seen in Cincy of the two places, and a (STL) for one only in St Louis, and nothing for both

Love's - Y, mostly rural areas though
Road Ranger - N
Casey's - N, but apparently there are 4 locations in my area from a quick search
Stripes - N
Flying J - N
QuikTrip - Y (STL)
Holiday - N
TA - N
OnCue - N
Chevron - N
Exxon - Y, but not common in these two areas. However, its sister brand (Mobil) is.
BP - Y
Phillips 66 - Y (STL)
Mobil - Y
Speedway - Y (CIN)
Pemex - N
Alon - N
Valero - N
Conoco - N
7-Eleven - Y (STL)
Shell - Y
Sinclair - N, turns out there are some in neighboring Indiana though from a search.

Some other brands I've seen before:
- Ameristop (CIN)
- Esso (Only outside of the US)
- Marathon (CIN)
- Pilot (Mostly rural areas)
- Sunoco (CIN)

And the ones with a supermarket:
- Costco
- Kroger
- Meijer
- Sam's

[webny99]

Pemex - heard of it, but it doesn't exist in this area.

Pemex - heard of it, but it doesn't exist in this area.

I suspect you copied my list and forgot to update Pemex, LOL 

[SkyPesos]

Pemex - heard of it, but it doesn't exist in this area.

Pemex - heard of it, but it doesn't exist in this area.

I suspect you copied my list and forgot to update Pemex, LOL 

Knew I would forget to change something when using your list 

[vdeane]

Sinclair - never heard of it.

This one is surprising too.  I guess they're based out of Utah, but they still are around the Midwest quite a bit.  Never seen the green dinosaur?

Chris

There's one in Watkins Glen, but that's recent.  It was a Gulf station as recently as 2018 when street view went through.

[Big John]

^^Green Bay still has one though Sinclair is long gone.  That gas station is now a Shell and they had to get permission to keep it there.
https://goo.gl/maps/QmqdcL9sZbGMGB5P8

[Scott5114]

I do try and go out of my way to try regional chains if I'm out traveling, since the Pacific Northwest is about the last place you'll see national chains expand to.

Nah, that'd be Oklahoma. Because the population density is so low here, the formulas executives use to calculate expected profit for a location don't work properly, and always return a "do not build" recommendation. Of course, they don't realize that Oklahomans are unusually willing to drive longer distances to go to an ordinary store. Costco took a risk and opened a store in north OKC against the recommendation of their formulas and traffic regularly backs up onto the turnpike.

Casey's ... OnCue. 

Hell yeah, OnCue! That's my gas station of choice. The reason OnCue exists is because of a deal between QuikTrip management and that of the Brown family, which owned the 7-Eleven franchise for Oklahoma City. Basically, the founders of QT helped train the Brown family patriarch in the convenience store business. When Brown moved to OKC to start his 7-Eleven franchise, he made a deal with QT–Brown would open no 7-Elevens in Tulsa so long as QT opened no QTs in OKC. And this agreement has held for decades.

Over the years, though, Brown's 7-Eleven and QT evolved in different directions, with 7-Eleven remaining a small corner gas station type of store and QT evolving more in the direction of Sheetz/Wawa, with dozens of pumps and a larger store including hot food offerings. Some Stillwater businessmen noticed the absence of a QT-format convenience store chain in OKC and created OnCue by basically copying the QT idea and expanding on it, including things like frozen yogurt bars and a full fast-food restaurant ("The Grill at OnCue") into their stores.

(This is a pattern that repeats over and over in OKC, by the way. Going from what I said above in response to Bruce, we tend to have national chains avoid us...so what ends up happening is some local businessperson travels to a coastal city, sees a concept they like, and then comes back to OKC and builds a copy of it and ends up making a killing.)

Now that the Brown family has sold their 7-Eleven franchise back to 7-Eleven corporate, the original agreement between QT and 7-Eleven no longer applies...but now QT would have to compete with OnCue should they try to enter OKC. Of course QT and OnCue are so similar, a lot of people wonder why QT doesn't just buy out OnCue and rebrand their stores. If they're going to do that, though, they'd better do it soon–OnCue is starting to expand outside of OKC (they have a store in Houston now).

As for Casey's...they've been absent from OKC for most of my life, but they just bought out all the local Circle Ks and rebranded them to Casey's. Hopefully they'll be upgrading the former Circle Ks over time, since most of them were kind of small and gross.


A little surprised to see people who have never heard of Phillips 66, Conoco, and/or Sinclair. Those (along with Standard, Texaco, and Kerr McGee) date back to the Route 66 era (where do you think Phillips Petroleum got the "66" from, after all?) and are appropriately represented in pop culture referencing that time period, even if they aren't as dominant in the present day as they were back then.

[JayhawkCO]

Sinclair - never heard of it.

This one is surprising too.  I guess they're based out of Utah, but they still are around the Midwest quite a bit.  Never seen the green dinosaur?

I don't think so, no. Most of my Midwest travels have been in OH, MI, WI, MN, and ND and it doesn't look like there's many locations that far north (or east, in the case of OH and MI).

There were some in MN when I grew up there as a kid.  Not nearly as common as Super America or Fina (are those still around?), but they were there.

Chris

[kphoger]

As for Casey's...they've been absent from OKC for most of my life, but they just bought out all the local Circle Ks and rebranded them to Casey's. Hopefully they'll be upgrading the former Circle Ks over time, since most of them were kind of small and gross.

Casey's is more of a thing when we travel north or east (Iowa or Missouri).  The older stations aren't much to write home about, but a lot of them have been upgraded to nicer stations over the last few years.

[Flint1979]

Another one I thought of: there's a gas station right on my route home (from most everywhere), so I tend to think of getting gas as something that is not at all inconvenient (especially as I get it en route somewhere when on the road).  ... I usually have to think about the trips out to get gas that I do when visiting my parents (who don't conveniently have a Stewart's Shop or Fastrac with gas right on the roads from I-590 to their house).

This might depend more on the character of the area you live in than where it happens to be located. I totally understand your point about certain parts of Rochester and its inner suburbs, but I don't think it's specific to the Rochester area. There are certainly parts of Buffalo that have a similar lack of gas stations in residential areas, and I would imagine Albany as well. In my case, there aren't many gas stations due east from home, but there are gas stations on both of my primary routes to work and between home and the freeway.

In this case, it's not just gas stations, but good gas stations.  Before I moved to Albany, I didn't really care much about brand and whatnot when I got gas; a gas station was a gas station.  Now, I heavily favor the nice gas station/convenience store chains (Stewart's, Fastrac, Sheetz, Wawa, QuickChek, Cumberland Farms, etc.) over ye typical gas station where possible, even when all I need is gas.  At some point, I got used to Stewart's being all over the place!  It definitely feels different when going to other areas and actually having to look to find the nice stations.

Is it bad that I never heard of any of those gas station brands before?

Out of those I've only heard of Wawa and Sheetz.

[Flint1979]

How about these gas stations that I have never seen outside of Michigan?

Beacon & Bridge
Admiral
Holiday
Wesco
Krist

Just to name a few.

[kphoger]

Out of those I've only heard of Wawa and Sheetz.

Same here.  And I've only heard of them because of this forum.

[kphoger]

How about these gas stations that I have never seen outside of Michigan?

Beacon & Bridge
Admiral
Holiday
Wesco
Krist

Just to name a few.

Is Holiday the same one that's ubiquitous in southern Minnesota?

[Flint1979]

As for Casey's...they've been absent from OKC for most of my life, but they just bought out all the local Circle Ks and rebranded them to Casey's. Hopefully they'll be upgrading the former Circle Ks over time, since most of them were kind of small and gross.

Casey's is more of a thing when we travel north or east (Iowa or Missouri).  The older stations aren't much to write home about, but a lot of them have been upgraded to nicer stations over the last few years.

I think a lot of the Casey's stores are nice. Where I've generally seen them is Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. They only have one location that I know of in Michigan, in the Benton Harbor area off I-94.

There's a Casey's I've stopped at every time that I pass it on I-75. It's at exit 118 in Ohio a little town called Cridersville and there is a Dollar General, Speedway, Fuel Mart and Casey's at the same corner.

[Flint1979]

Out of those I've only heard of Wawa and Sheetz.

Same here.  And I've only heard of them because of this forum.

I know them from my trips to Pennsylvania but haven't heard of the other ones.

[Rothman]

How about these gas stations that I have never seen outside of Michigan?

Beacon & Bridge
Admiral
Holiday
Wesco
Krist

Just to name a few.

Is Holiday the same one that's ubiquitous in southern Minnesota?

Yeah, Holiday is in more places than just MI.  Not sure if I have seen any specifically in NY.

Admiral rings a bell, but the remaining two do not.

[Flint1979]

How about these gas stations that I have never seen outside of Michigan?

Beacon & Bridge
Admiral
Holiday
Wesco
Krist

Just to name a few.

Is Holiday the same one that's ubiquitous in southern Minnesota?

Yeah it looks like it is. I included it in my list here because I haven't ever seen one outside of northern Michigan, mainly the U.P. I can't recall one anywhere in the Lower Peninsula. But it says they have over 600 locations in 10 states.

[SEWIGuy]

How about these gas stations that I have never seen outside of Michigan?

Beacon & Bridge
Admiral
Holiday
Wesco
Krist

Just to name a few.

There are Krist's in Green Bay.  Always the cheapest gas but they look sketchy.

[Flint1979]

I would advise everyone to stay away from the Admiral brand. I have never trusted their stations which all seem to be pretty beat up and run down most of the time especially in the inner cities like Saginaw, Flint and Lansing. One thing I have noticed about them is the price on the sign and the price on the pump aren't the same a lot of times. They have locations all over the area but it really doesn't matter where they are located they look like something out of the ghetto at every location basically. They bought a lot of the old Clark stations and just converted them to their brand which to me is low quality. The Admiral closest to my house which is about a mile and a half or so away has had problems with water in the gas, this location has since switched to being an Exxon and a lot of the locations have co-branded with Marathon.

[SEWIGuy]

QuikTrip - is this the same as Kwik Trip? I have heard of and been to the latter, mostly because it's so common in Minnesota.

Ah, only someone who travels to Minnesota would ask that!   

No, they aren't.

Kwik Trip is the best gas station around.  I will go out of my way to stop there.

[Rothman]

QuikTrip - is this the same as Kwik Trip? I have heard of and been to the latter, mostly because it's so common in Minnesota.

Ah, only someone who travels to Minnesota would ask that!   [emoji3]

No, they aren't.

Kwik Trip is the best gas station around.  I will go out of my way to stop there.

What makes it the best?

[Flint1979]

How about these gas stations that I have never seen outside of Michigan?

Beacon & Bridge
Admiral
Holiday
Wesco
Krist

Just to name a few.

There are Krist's in Green Bay.  Always the cheapest gas but they look sketchy.

Well I figured it was possible for them to have locations in other states but I haven't seen them. Michigan and Wisconsin seem a lot alike to me anyway.

[kphoger]

Kwik Trip is the best gas station around.  I will go out of my way to stop there.

What makes it the best?

They give you gas.