The general decline in standards today

[HudsonHawk]

There were several Texaco stations near me but they're all history.

Did they change or close down?

 

[dh66]

Cool. Hard to gauge depth sometimes with a flat screen.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

 

[jamespowers]

In 1979-81 I worked for a local construction company that did concrete work for commercial sites. One of their customers was the Kraft Foods facility that was in Buena Park, California. Don't tell anyone, but they squirted the same mayonnaise and mustard into every bottle or jar regardless of what it said on the label.

They still do it today. You can always tell by taste. If the jar looks the same then it likely came from the same company---just like the difference between Hellman's and Best Foods.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Did they change or close down?

Texaco merged with Chevron -- formerly Standard of California -- and Chevron emerged as the dominant brand. Texaco stations outside Chevron territory were sold to Shell, which ran them as Texaco for while under a licensing arrangement, but most of those locations have been converted to Shell. This move brought Shell back into territories it had vacated in the '70s -- we hadn't had Shell stations here since 1976, but now they're cropping up again. Getty, formerly Tidewater-Associated Oil, selling as Tydol/Flying A, was mixed in there somewhere too, and some former Texaco locations rebranded as Getty and are now calling themselves Lukoil or something like that.

For over forty years, Texaco prided itself on its status as the only major oil company to sell in all the states. Them days is gone forever.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Texaco merged with Chevron -- formerly Standard of California -- and Chevron emerged as the dominant brand. Texaco stations outside Chevron territory were sold to Shell, which ran them as Texaco for while under a licensing arrangement, but most of those locations have been converted to Shell. This move brought Shell back into territories it had vacated in the '70s -- we hadn't had Shell stations here since 1976, but now they're cropping up again. Getty, formerly Tidewater-Associated Oil, selling as Tydol/Flying A, was mixed in there somewhere too, and some former Texaco locations rebranded as Getty and are now calling themselves Lukoil or something like that.

For over forty years, Texaco prided itself on its status as the only major oil company to sell in all the states. Them days is gone forever.

Right, that's what I was getting at. Texaco gas stations were owned by several joint ventures, one of which was with Shell. They were forced to sell off that ownership as part of the merger with Chevron, and the stations were later re-branded.

Texaco bought Getty's upstream operations in 1984 (and promptly had their pants sued off by Pennzoil), but it's downstream continued under the Getty name. Lukoil, a Russian oil company, bought Getty downstream, but then sold the Getty name to some jobbers who use the name for marketing purposes. The Gulf brand is similar. Gulf was bought by Chevron in 1984, and Chevron continued to own the Gulf name and licensed it for marketing purposes, but had nothing to do with the gas stations using it. Chevron officially sold off the name in 2010 and now has nothing to do with Gulf stations, which are popping back up as well.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Gulf is the ultimate example of this -- up until the '80s they were an actual oil company. They're nothing now *but* a brand, owned by a convenience-store chain. "That Good Gulf Gasoline" is now just whatever generic product they can buy on the open market.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Did they change or close down?

They might have changed because one is now a Shell station.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Gulf is the ultimate example of this -- up until the '80s they were an actual oil company. They're nothing now *but* a brand, owned by a convenience-store chain. "That Good Gulf Gasoline" is now just whatever generic product they can buy on the open market.

I used to love this advert when I was a littl'un. Back then Gulf used to sponsor NBC's coverage of the Apollo missions.

[video=youtube;pEyF80FFpTw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEyF80FFpTw[/video]

 

[HudsonHawk]

They might have changed because one is now a Shell station.

Yeah, that's probably a result of the anti-trust divestiture. Texaco was allowed to keep some stations, but not much in areas where Chevron had a strong market share, such as southern California.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Gulf is the ultimate example of this -- up until the '80s they were an actual oil company. They're nothing now *but* a brand, owned by a convenience-store chain. "That Good Gulf Gasoline" is now just whatever generic product they can buy on the open market.

Pure is another of these brands. They are back now as a brand only in much of the southeastern US.

 

[GHT]

Pure is another of these brands. They are back now as a brand only in much of the southeastern US.

Hudson, you seem well briefed in the oil industry. One thing that has always puzzled me is: Why does Exxon sell itself as Esso in Europe? It seems odd to me. I could understand if two fledgling companies that started out, at the end of the 19th century, had similar names, then the dominant one, went on to buy out the other. And then considered that sales might be lost if a name change came about, but Exxon and Esso. No comprendo.

 

[Dragon Soldier]

Anyone know of Nafta?

There were some interesting tales about them back in the day, at least their UK operations.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Hudson, you seem well briefed in the oil industry. One thing that has always puzzled me is: Why does Exxon sell itself as Esso in Europe? It seems odd to me. I could understand if two fledgling companies that started out, at the end of the 19th century, had similar names, then the dominant one, went on to buy out the other. And then considered that sales might be lost if a name change came about, but Exxon and Esso. No comprendo.

"Esso" was the brand of gasoline sold by Standard Oil. It's the spelling of the pronunciation of "SO"...Standard Oil. When Standard Oil broke up in 1911, one of the companies that emerged was Standard Oil of New Jersey, which was given the trademark on the brand "Esso". In the ensuing years, many of the other former Standard companies complained about the "Esso" name, and in fact the name was not allowed in some US states. But it remained in Europe and much of the US. In 1973, Standard Oil of New Jersey changed their name to Exxon, and along with it, rebranded many of its US stations. But they retain the Esso brand, and still use it where it's been a fixture for many years.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Anyone know of Nafta?

There were some interesting tales about them back in the day, at least their UK operations.

The Nafta I know was a company that operated in Europe years ago, particularly in Belgium and Sweden. They eventually became part of what is now Q8, which is part of the Kuwaiti national oil company.

 

[GHT]

Thanks for that, you won't realise how dumb I feel. Back in the late 1970's, I was working for a company that did a great deal of business with Saudi Arabia. I did a good many shifts of three months at a time, working there. Most of their oil was sold at garages with the Q8 sign. Q 8 a pun on Kuwait. A subsidery of Standard Oil, I am trying to remember who the subsidery was, just happened to be our Saudi client's main subcontractor. You would think that getting Kuwait/Q8 without thought, that Esso/SO would have been obvious. Yeah right.
When I was I little boy, there was a potato merchant near where I lived, who had a personalised licence plate, the number being POT 80.
It took me nigh on fifty years, and the advent of text speak to realise that the potato farmer's licence plate was a pun: POT eight oh, potato.
Quick, I am not.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Thanks for that, you won't realise how dumb I feel. Back in the late 1970's, I was working for a company that did a great deal of business with Saudi Arabia. I did a good many shifts of three months at a time, working there. Most of their oil was sold at garages with the Q8 sign. Q 8 a pun on Kuwait. A subsidery of Standard Oil, I am trying to remember who the subsidery was, just happened to be our Saudi client's main subcontractor. You would think that getting Kuwait/Q8 without thought, that Esso/SO would have been obvious. Yeah right.
When I was I little boy, there was a potato merchant near where I lived, who had a personalised licence plate, the number being POT 80.
It took me nigh on fifty years, and the advent of text speak to realise that the potato farmer's licence plate was a pun: POT eight oh, potato.
Quick, I am not.

Oil was first produced in Saudi Arabia by Standard of California (Chevron). Texaco acquired 50% of that in the 1930's, and the joint venture was called "Caltex", a brand still used in many parts of the world today. They later changed their name to Arabian-American Oil Company (Aramco). Exxon and Mobil got in on the game later on. By the late 1960's the Saudi government started buying percentages of Aramco, and by 1980, owned all of it. They changed the name to Saudi-Aramco in 1988.

 

[Zombie_61]

Hence the name Zombie?

Sometimes, yes. Especially if I haven't slept for two or three days.

In the real world, yes. In the fantasy world of Apple Computer, and specifically Apple Computer laptop hinges, they are exactly the same thing.

A corporation embellishing their products in order to generate more sales? Say it ain't so!

...When I was I little boy, there was a potato merchant near where I lived, who had a personalised licence plate, the number being POT 80.
It took me nigh on fifty years, and the advent of text speak to realise that the potato farmer's licence plate was a pun: POT eight oh, potato.
Quick, I am not.

Sometimes it just takes a while to get the joke. Years ago I was behind a car with a bumper sticker that advertised some sort of book club, and the sticker said "Metaphors be with you". I knew there was a joke in there somewhere, but it wasn't until I said it out loud that I realized it was a play on "May The Force Be With You". :eusa_doh:

 

[jamespowers]

"Esso" was the brand of gasoline sold by Standard Oil. It's the spelling of the pronunciation of "SO"...Standard Oil. When Standard Oil broke up in 1911, one of the companies that emerged was Standard Oil of New Jersey, which was given the trademark on the brand "Esso". In the ensuing years, many of the other former Standard companies complained about the "Esso" name, and in fact the name was not allowed in some US states. But it remained in Europe and much of the US. In 1973, Standard Oil of New Jersey changed their name to Exxon, and along with it, rebranded many of its US stations. But they retain the Esso brand, and still use it where it's been a fixture for many years.

And going back to the beginning of the break up of Standard oil we see the same thing that happened with AT&T---the law of unintended consequences. Rockefeller was made into a super rich billionaire in six months after the split because he ended up owning HUGE amounts of stock in each of the new companies. People like Bill Gates today will never understand the magnitude of wealth Rockefeller had. He earned more in one year from business operations than the super rich have in total today(adjusted for inflation of course). Rockefeller is known to have said that he wouldn't have fought the break up if he had known how much better off he would be.

 

[Gregg Axley]

We are starting to see Texaco spring back up in TN.
In fact, they just built a new station a couple of miles from where I work.
Odd to see that name again, after all these years.
Then again, my FIL's town has a Mobil station.
I haven't seen those in 30yrs.

 

[HudsonHawk]

And going back to the beginning of the break up of Standard oil we see the same thing that happened with AT&T---the law of unintended consequences. Rockefeller was made into a super rich billionaire in six months after the split because he ended up owning HUGE amounts of stock in each of the new companies. People like Bill Gates today will never understand the magnitude of wealth Rockefeller had. He earned more in one year from business operations than the super rich have in total today(adjusted for inflation of course). Rockefeller is known to have said that he wouldn't have fought the break up if he had known how much better off he would be.

So? The breakup still opened the path for new players in the market. Anti-trust laws are not meant as a mechanism to prevent people from making money.

And as for Rockefeller, he was super rich long before 1911. At the time if the breakup, he was worth about $200 billion in today's money.