See more articles about local business openings and closings
Earlier this month the on Carlton Hills Boulevard closed for business. The gas pumps were laced with caution tape and the Sunshine convenience store was shuttered.
It is unclear why the station shut down, no notices were on the front door and the owners offer no clue. But, an answer might lay in the fact that BP, the corporate owner of the Arco franchise and stations, is selling many of its operations in California to pay for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Arco is known to have some of the lowest gas prices on the market, and the loss of many Arco stations has some gas price analysts considering the affect on cheaper gas options.
A CBS station in Los Angeles quoted an Arco owner: "They [Arco] control the market because they’re low gas. So if there’s a Chevron across the street from you, they have to be close to you. Now there’s no Arco anymore, they don’t really care. They are going to work on any margin they want.”
The Carlton Hills Arco was in direct competition with the recently renamed on the corner of Mission Gorge Road and Carlton Hills Boulevard. Go Gasoline regularly featured gas prices slightly above Arco, but was in a more high traffic area.
It was one of two Arco stations in Santee, which regularly offer the cheapest gas in town, second to .
If you know why the Arco was shuttered, please share in the comments.
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If I recall correctly, this Arco didn't sell alcohol for years because of some violation. I wonder if there was another alcohol related violation and they were forced to shut down.
ABC is good at that.. mist be something else at play here.. doug
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/03/17/hundreds-of-arco-stations-becoming-gasoline-usa/
doug
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/arco-344987-thrifty-stations.html
According to this report...published by KTLA after the other articles listed on this thread....the other 700 or so locations in Southern California are not affected by this....at least not yet. http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-arco-stations-closing,0,4899528.story
The following inquiry was submitted to US - BP America Press Relations on 05/31/12 14:49 (931059): From : Scott Dean (deans) Date : 05/31/12 12:50 Here’s the story. BP announced plans to divest its Carson, California refinery and Southern California retail network in February 2011. The company intends to sell the refinery, associated businesses and the ARCO-branded retail network in 2012 as an on-going business. A number of prospective buyers have already expressed interest in the refinery and ARCO brand. There are about 920 ARCO-branded stations in Southern California operated by independent dealers and franchisees. Approximately 130 of these ARCO-branded retail sites were leased from Thrifty Oil Company. The leases of these 130 sites will expire over the next two years and will revert back to Thrifty. These are the sites you are starting to see convert to other brands. The other 790 ARCO-branded sites are unaffected. The link to the original divestment announcement can be found here: http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=706707 3 While the final decision will be up to the buyer, we would fully expect them to want to retain and market fuel under ARCO brand in Southern California. It is a very popular brand with consumers and there is value associated with the ARCO name.