It's interesting to note that Holiday and SuperAmerica have either closed or sold most of their "neighborhood" stores (but not the stores close to freeway exits, or major intersections in the 'burbs). I can't speak for SA, but the Erickson boys have not been known to turn down money--so why did they sell?
Neither of these chains were ever in the 'hood that much to begin with- Streets like 26th Avenue North, Franklin through Phillips neighborhood, etc.. by and large don't have the traffic counts to justify a convenience store. Holiday has actually completely rebuilt some older stores in the city like the ones on Washington Avenue and East Franklin in Seward. Most of SuperAmerica's closings are the fallout of their purchase of 7-11's Minnesota stores a few years back- they literally had stores across the street from each other and some had to be closed. The SuperAmerica's closed on Lowry at Lyndale and University and Franklin and 2nd are gone for this reason. Antitrust pressures may be driving some of SuperAmerica's consolidations too- they simply have close to too much of the market here. This may explain why their franchise stores are flying the "Marathon" flag. Valvoline Oil, Stravin' Marvin's. and Speedway are also Ashland brands.
It could be that they couldn't compete with the independents. Now this is counterintuitive, because usually the chains can drive independents out of business by undercutting the prices. But if the "hoodies" are offering less than legal deals, it might work the opposite way of normal.
This is not unusual in the Northeastern U.S., and could spread here. Untaxed off road diesel, heating oil, kerosene, and even jet fuel are similar enough to be mixed with legal diesel to avoid taxes and enhance profits. If someone opens a hole in the wall "truck stop" and offers diesel at incredibly cheap prices I'd be suspicious. BTW, the spread in gas prices in a few miles is so great that one could turn a profit buying it at retail and trucking it a few miles to where the price is inflated. Diesel fuels are much more stably priced, the market being driven by big customers like the U.S. Navy and Union Pacific Railroad.
I was just in Ireland, which, along with its newfound prosperity, is suffering from a huge epidemic of street crime. Something else happening is that there are major smuggling operations running from the Republic into Northern Ireland, which operates under UK laws, and has generally higher prices on fuel and cigarettes.
It's so bad that it is estimated that the UK government is losing out on 480 million pounds worth of revenue from smuggled diesel fuel alone. Then, the legitimate retailers can't compete with the ones who buy the smuggled goods much cheaper. The good guys go bankrupt.
Part of this "smuggling" is the use of rapeseed oil as an untaxed renewable fuel for diesel cars- Britian's tax on diesel is so high that many biodiesel fuels are cheaper.
Plus, it seems that the big players in the smuggling operations are the IRA and Protestant militants. It's so lucrative that there are reports of members of the two groups working together--they who were deadly enemies before. And neither group is shy about using murder to further business aims. The government is letting it slide for now, for fear of derailing the "peace" process.
Untaxed diesel is quite common in rural Minnesota- the freight rates on bulk agricultural commodities are so low that truckers use every trick in the book to stay in business. Typically the trucker has a farm or construction business that can legally use untaxed fuel in off road tractors, construction equipment, etc.. They simply fuel their truck from the untaxed "off road" diesel tank and count on light enforcement to keep them in business. Some will even go to the extreme of putting separate fuel tanks for taxed and untaxed diesel on their trucks with a valve to switch between tanks. They'll then add a pump of some sort and claim that the untaxed diesel is for the legal use of pumping off cargo while off road. Despite the fact that said pumping uses little fuel the untaxed fuel tank is always as big as the taxed one! I have even seem this scam attempted when the truck is hauling a cargo unloaded by forklift rather than pumping...
We used to have two nearby "neighborhood" grocery stores, both SuperValu's. A Black entepreneur bought both and was operating them, but they are now closed. I don't know why.
Perhaps they lost financing after the new Cub on West Broadway was announced?
We do most of our shopping at the (relatively new) Kowalski's in Camden, specifically to support a high-quality neighborhood store. The manager told me the store was struggling, but they were committed to trying to build up the customer base. Certainly Kowalski's does have prices somewhat higher than Cub or Rainbow, but they have better quality and service, too.
Better service maybe, but quality, no- Kowalski's is pretty much supplied by the same warehouses as Cub and Super Valu.
ready for renewable fuels (where's my biodiesel?!) in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
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