Hess Express now Speedway 486 West Street, South Amherst
Just when I get used to calling the long time, always busy, convenience store in South Amherst by its new name they go and get bought out and change their name again.
When I first opened my business next door over 30 years ago it was a Dairy Mart, then DB Mart, then Volaro, then Hess Express and now Speedway.
The most recent metamorphosis is pretty much like all the rest: Speedway purchased 1,200 Hess Express stores for $2.8 billion dollars and simply changed the signage. Although I'm sure the one over the front entry will get a better, more permanent one soon.
With the perfect location, location, location of this store on Rt 116 (West Street) it has never gone out of business due to a lack of business. Probably the only other store in Amherst with the same daily volume is the Cumberland Farms on Rt 9 (College Street), East Amherst.
Interestingly in the past couple years both of these locations tried to acquire a beer/wine permit, but the Select Board (acting as Liquor Commissioners) turned them down.
Concerns centered on nearby mom-and-pop liquor stores being negatively impacted and -- because they do such convenient high volume sales -- it could put liquor in the wrong hands at the wrong time, like just before getting behind the wheel of a car.
Having an even larger player now in place at that prime location can only benefit the South Amherst Village Center.
Will Mission Cantina ever expand? The parking is as bad as the food is good. Which is to say parking is VERY VERY bad.
ReplyDeleteThey don't own the building, so they would probably have to relocate to get any bigger.
ReplyDeleteThey don't need more parking. Any more people in the place and what is already too long a wait for pretty okay Tex Mex would end up being a disaster. They can barely keep up as it is.
ReplyDelete"Having an even larger player now in place at that prime location can only benefit the South Amherst Village Center."
ReplyDeleteRally? How?
When was the last time that the corporate owner of a gas station made any difference?
At one time it was Shell, and that's one of the biggest of them all. Get your slushee and move along.
"Concerns centered on nearby mom-and-pop liquor stores being negatively impacted"
ReplyDeleteWhat part of "restraint of trade" and "Anti Trust" does this not constitute?
Big stores are "monstrosities" to be shunned and denounced with secular vehemism. Success is almost always the result of oppression, bigotry, and corruption. Only failure and stagnation are to be celebrated. The only thing that should grow is vegetation, which should never be cut. We should welcome the subsequent rodents, insects, and fungi into our yards and homes. Only when the land has reverted to its primordial state and predators roam free again will our town be perfect.
ReplyDeleteOh get lost. Oppression, bigotry and corruption. Vegetation should never be cut?? Lol. Oh! You're Serious...please . Don't have children.
DeleteI prefer sacred vehemence. Like decapitating the infidels. But I guess secular vehemence is running a close second. It takes the form of lecturing and haranguing until your eyes bleed.
Delete^the meds are NOT working.
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:15AM, please get back on your meds and move out of Amherst, there are enough crazy people here.
ReplyDeleteMethinks that (Anon 11:15 AM) was sarcasm.
ReplyDeleteBut as I keep saying, sarcasm requires its owns special font.
11:15 here, I thought the sarcasm would be obvious, yikes.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Glad the rant was a joke. It seemed so real!
DeleteNot in Amherst.
ReplyDeleteCall it any corporate name you want, its just a gas station. Few know that all gasoline in this state comes from one of three refineries in NJ. Regardless of the name on the pump it's the same gas as everyone else with a different distributer. I used to love how Mobil claimed their gas was different. They claimed it cleaned your engine. Reality was, after they filled a tanker, the driver would climb on top and pour a 700ml container of detergent in the truck and you had your "special" Mobil gas.
ReplyDeleteWalter, as someone who used to drive those tankers, let me remind you of two things. First, if the tank you dump the load into is full of crap, that's not going to be as good gasoline as if you dumped it into a pristine clean tank. And second, some of those things you dump into the truck are really concentrated. As long as they are well mixed, it isn't the same gas anymore.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Irving comes out of St. John, not New Jersey....
Yeah, but Walter knows everything.
ReplyDeleteWalter,
ReplyDeleteThere is n such (singular) thing as "Gasoline." Yes, there is the 1203 diamond and the name, but I've lost count of the number of different blends of it which are currently marketed in this country ALONE.
It has (or once had) more Benzine during winter months than summer months so as to have a higher vapor pressure (more likely to evaporate) so that cars would start easier and run better in cold weather, as only gasoline vapor burns -- the liquid does not.
(At -30 degrees, it is possible to extinguish a lit wooden match in a #10 tin can with a couple of inches of gasoline in it -- I've done it. The first two matches sounded as if they had been tossed into water, evaporating enough vapor for the third to ignite.)
There is gasoline with ethanol added and various formations mandated by the EPA -- this logistical nightmare is part of why gasoline prices haven't fallen as much as they should have with the drop in the price of crude. Unlike the distillate, Ethanol absorbs & mixes with water and can not be shipped by pipeline -- it must be transported by truck or railcar -- that flare (always burning flame) next to 391(?) in Springfield (?) is the end of a pipeline from Boston -- the flare is there so that if something goes wrong and they need to dump a lot of product in a hurry before something overflows or bursts due to pressure, they can pump/vent it up there and burn it off.
Until the propitiatory additives and ETOH are added, within categories, gasoline is considered fungible and while you get the same amount out of the pipeline that you put in, it isn't the exact same product. And the tankers that come into Boston (actually Everett) aren't just from New Jersey.
And it is supposed to meet Octane specs - and it does when it arrives but that is until someone pumps the 87 gas into the 93 tank, or just has someone dump a few thousand gallons of 87 in there, or paints the fill cover the wrong color so the driver does it accidentally. And there are a couple gallons in the hose so when all three grades come out of the same hose, you aren't always getting what you paid for.
Speaking of know it alls.
ReplyDeleteWell, some people do really know it all.
DeleteGood Ed. You clearly can do web searches and regurgitate all sorts of shit. As Einstein said, information is not knowledge. Might want to do a bit more research on Everett as you are off.
ReplyDeleteI have done a lot of work for the oil refinery industry so mostly speak from experience. As I said all your gas around here comes from NJ for the most part mixed in various pipelines with stuff from other places; all the "blends" which there aren't really many. There are less than 130 refineries of all gasoline in this country, none in New England. As for octane, here's a simple rule to save you money, regardless of what the manufacturer says, start with the lowest grade and if your car doesn't ping or stutter you don't need the more expensive grade. And, when someone has pumped 87 before you and you choose 91 you get a few gallons of 87 anyway as the pipe feed is switched.
As for your ethanol explanation, you might want to do more web searches as you are off. Ethanol can be delivered by pipeline and isn't mostly because of the cost to add pipelines to ship it, not because it can't be. Hint: Did a industry video presentation on pigs in a pipeline system Florida a while back and the cost to scrub gasoline pipes, so that they can then be used to transport ethanol. Search pigs and then see if you can figure out why ethanol isn't cost effective to ship in pipes as it is now. Hint, more non ethanol gas is used than ethanol blend in this country.
Walter, what is the number of your chemical engineering license? You must have one if you are claiming that I am wrong because I didn't do a web search, I just mentioned things that I had been told by people who did have CE licenses.
ReplyDeleteI know the pipeline of which I spoke is active or they wouldn't have that flare lit -- that costs money, I imagine quite a bit of it, and Everett was the other end of the pipeline and I suspect still is. Yes, maybe they run tankers up the Connecticut -- but I don't think so...
Ed, very simply without scrubbing pipes, Ethanol treated gasoline can't simply be sent down a pipeline that was being used for non ethanol treated gasoline. It has to do with economics, not volatility of fuel. It cost too much money to do so (most produced in the midwest) hence ships are used to transport winter blends to distributors then to you and that price is built into the cost of gasoline.
ReplyDeleteYour gasoline gets to you by combinations of truck, train and boat from places as far as Canada to Texas and is distributed in this state to one of 30 terminals for distribution. There is no liquid fuel distribution system in New England by pipe but there are a few smaller distribution systems from storage areas to racks in the state. And as I said, because of transportation costs, gas is pretty much gas from the 139 refineries in this country.
Individual station owners buy from various racks and company owned stations have their own distribution system. There are about a half a dozen boutique blends made for distribution but any required oxygenates or additives that differentiate one brand from a another are done by the driver of the truck when his truck is filled. And that includes the red dye that is put into heating fuel to differentiate it from diesel fuel (both are identical other than the tax charged for diesel fuel which is more than heating fuel and hence the dye). Tip: If you heat your home with oil and run out you can put 10 gallons of diesel from your local gas station in until your next delivery and have your heat back.
Saw the Gulf station on 116 in Sunderland getting their delivery not long ago. The jobber is from Long Island, the gas from NJ. Distributors are about price so may use what seems to be a distant rack for distribution but economically it works for them. That's not every delivery, just one example of how far your gas comes from by truck. Like any business which rack your fuel is delivered from has to do with economics and the deals made for distribution.
And crude oil price is not the single determination of daily gasoline price, more like half and hence why gas doesn't simply drop with crude price. The rest is determined by wholesale and retail market structure and state taxes.
Two words: "Sulfur Dumping".....`
ReplyDeleteWhile all Diesel Fuel can be used as #2 Home Heating Oil, not all #2 can be used as Diesel -- not legally, at least, and one of the differences is the maximum allowable Sulfur content which only applies to Diesel. Home Heating can have as much as the refinery wants to have in it.
And there is a shortage of refinery capacity in this country.