BP boycotts hurt local stations; gas giant offers help

BP boycotts hurt local stations; gas giant offers help

From CNN : www.cnn.com...

Here are a few exerts from the article.

About a dozen protesters gathered Saturday morning under a BP gas station sign in metro Atlanta, Georgia, picketing and cheering as motorists who drove by honked.

The demonstration was one of dozens happening in cities as part of the "Worldwide BP Protest Day," a Facebook group that claims to have more than 350,000 supporters.

Gas station and convenience store owners said protesters are targeting the wrong people.

In 2008, the London, England-based oil giant announced it was exiting the retail gasoline business because margins were lousy. Today, the 11,500 gas stations that carry its logo in the United States are owned by independent franchisees such as Russell Scaramella of Georgia Oil Holdings.

He owns 22 BP stations in the Atlanta area that he acquired from the U.K. firm in March 2009, and he said he is worried the bad publicity eventually will hurt his bottom line.

"The hardest part is on the employees because they are seeing the protests. ... They are concerned about their jobs and families," Scaramella said.
Protests such as these are likely to be counterproductive, said Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores. They can hurt the bottom line of locally owned gas stations instead.

"So whether you are protesting by marching, or by not buying gas, you are hurting the small business, but you are really not hurting BP," he said.

Moreover, BP doesn't solely provide gasoline to its franchises.

BP protesters said they understand that they might be hurting independently owned gas stations, but they said it's a signal that operators should disassociate themselves from the gas giant or get out of the gas retailing industry altogether.

Michael Monahan, who was protesting at the BP gas station in Atlanta, said: "I feel kind of sorry for them; they're stuck in the middle. But there's not a headquarters for me to stand under today; there's just that sign."

Gas stations cannot simply drop the BP logo though. Most franchise owners have contractual obligations to fulfill. Scaramella has a 20-year agreement with BP to carry its brand name and its gas.

I feel sorry too that these gas station owners and their employees are caught in the middle. But it's time to get tough. CNN presented this in a way designed to gain sympathy for these owners (and in turn BP IMO). I am sorry, but these owners will just have to put up with this or sell these stations and invest in other companies. As long as they sell ONE BP product, that's money in BP's pockets. This must not continue.

The employees can get other jobs. The station owners.. heck they are gas station owners! Their families are not going to have a lack of food on the table if they have that kind of money to own gas stations. Sure they may not be able to afford that new 100 thousand dollar boat they just bought on borrowed money but tough luck. Their families are not going to starve.

These gas stations are owned by PB directly:
Arco, am/pm,Amoco Ultimate, and BP gas stations across the United States.

I say, if your in doubt, find out if the gas station still carries any BP products and if they do, boycott them. It's nothing personal. These Owners should be refusing to sell BP's products in the face of this mess anyway.

( Perhaps I could have used a better tag than the exnews tag but I don't know any - where do you find those tags?)

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


I can sympathize with the owners of these stations, but...I say:

If you go to bed with an elephant, eventually you are going to be squashed.

Yes, boycott local gas shops and break their windows and harass the workers. They have nothing to do with the oil spill or the clean-up efforts. Let's use some common sense please.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Boycotting the gas stations achieves nothing. What good, if any comes from this kind of direct action. The pumps need to flow and people need work. You can't say that the employees will just find other jobs and leave the station owners out to roost.

There is a clean-up bill that will need to be paid and trying to bankrupt a company out of revenge achieves nothing. Whether you like it or not, you need BP to keep making money so as to ensure the situation is rectified.

Now, if your post talked about a hostile take over, then that's another story. Believe me, I come from a country that strikes as much as France, and it achieves nothing but misery for those who are innocent parties.

There is no need for old testament eye-for-an-eye stuff at the moment.



[edit on 16-6-2010 by LarryLove]

Seems to me that if the station owners have a contractual obligation to display the BP logo, BP has a reciprocal obligation not to do stuff that damages its. If the station owners are finding it uncomfortable to be associated with BP, then their proper recourse is to file a class action suit to either drop the logo or be compensated for the the loss of business due to BP's behavior.

Originally posted by jjkenobi
Yes, boycott local gas shops and break their windows and harass the workers. They have nothing to do with the oil spill or the clean-up efforts. Let's use some common sense please.

Are you insane? No one said anything about breaking windows or harassing the workers. That would be dead wrong. I am in no way advocating that behavior. No one said they have anything to do with the oil spill, but they really do.. They do have something to do with putting money in BP's pockets as long as they sell BP's products.

Originally posted by LarryLove
reply to post by JohnPhoenix

 

Boycotting the gas stations achieves nothing. What good, if any comes from this kind of direct action. The pumps need to flow and people need work. You can't say that the employees will just find other jobs and leave the station owners out to roost.

There is a clean-up bill that will need to be paid and trying to bankrupt a company out of revenge achieves nothing. Whether you like it or not, you need BP to keep making money so as to ensure the situation is rectified.

Now, if your post talked about a hostile take over, then that's another story. Believe me, I come from a country that strikes as much as France, and it achieves nothing but misery for those who are innocent parties.

There is no need for old testament eye-for-an-eye stuff at the moment.



[edit on 16-6-2010 by LarryLove]

This will not bankrupt the company. But it will show them loud and clear that the people won't stand for their actions. BP makes over 200 billion dollars a year. BP's pumps do Not need to flow. They already have the money, more than enough to pay for this oil spill and all of it's consequences for many years down the road and that's If all BP operations shut down world wide right now.. no.. No one needs BP to keep making money to pay for any of this.

Revenge? No.. this is not revenge.. this is doing what is right and just because it needs to be done.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


But for now, the global economy relies upon these kind of corporations. Bankrupting a key player in the oil business will have serious consequences for us all. Please also remember that a number of other companies are involved. Should they go bankrupt too?

Should the owners of Deepwater Horizon (Transocean) go bust?

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix

Originally posted by jjkenobi
Yes, boycott local gas shops and break their windows and harass the workers. They have nothing to do with the oil spill or the clean-up efforts. Let's use some common sense please.

Are you insane? No one said anything about breaking windows or harassing the workers. That would be dead wrong. I am in no way advocating that behavior. No one said they have anything to do with the oil spill, but they really do.. They do have something to do with putting money in BP's pockets as long as they sell BP's products.

I believe that was called Sarcasm.

So What If BP's pockets are lined by Gas Stations. This is called business. Gas stations provide a service, and they need a product to sell. If they can't get their gas from BP, they well get it somewhere else. So what do you want to do, hound every Petroleum company out of business that has a mishap? because the Government is just as guilty as BP in this mess, don't let anyone tell you different. Inspectors we're not doing their jobs.

reply to post by Target Earth


Ah... some reason in a post finally. I can understand people getting emotional about what is going on, but things need to kept in proportion.

BP should let the gas flow like water!

As a service to the planet, BP should deliver free gas to all stations until the well is capped.

Here comes the re-branding. Soon all BP gas stations won't be BP, they'll change their names... but guess what, they'll still be buying gas, that comes from BP oil! Boycotting them is a good thing, one less multi-billion dollar corp to lobby for big oil.

I've been boycotting here, and the "group" if you will, in my orig home town of those who are currently boycotting is up to 741 people.
Not bad for a town of 4900.

# BP

reply to post by PublicDefenseCorp

Good job falling in line, I love all the thinking outside the box
BP being Bankrupt isn't going to get the spill, cleaned up any faster...

Here is the thing gang.. Yes I agree BP should be boycotted.. but the local corner station. I don't know.

Think about it. Can you remember the last logo they had up? And think about how many times your local station has been 'rebranded'. Many times they are at the whims of the parent company and the owner of the station has to go along with the franchise contract or they cannot sell a 'premium brand' of gas. (such as exxon, moble, BP, Citgo, Cefco, shell.. ect) and then they just become a little no name station, where you have no idea where the gas is coming from and it is always a cheaper brand that totally sucks and will make your car run sluggish.

Also each time they rebrand it comes out of the stations owners pocket and not the corporation. And that costs A LOT!

So for me personally... Big picture yes boycott BP.. smaller local picture, if it was my corner store and I used them regularly no matter what brand they display.. no, I don't think I could or would.

Will anyone actually read and "hear" what I have to say, I don't know. But I wanted to put it out there.

Originally posted by PublicDefenseCorp
I've been boycotting here, and the "group" if you will, in my orig home town of those who are currently boycotting is up to 741 people.
Not bad for a town of 4900.

# BP

Why? If you have the energy to boycott, why not contribute somehow to the clean-up. I think some very real lessons have already been learned. Let me ask you what you think you can achieve from this kind of direct action? BP won't go bankrupt, but may be taken over by another company. Gazprom for instance. Will you boycott the new owners?

Instead of boycotting, try protesting. Maybe we can improve safety measures and prevent this from happening again.

Do you want people to lose their jobs?

Ya'll better boycott BP, if you know what's best for ya. Forget about hurting an local stations, they can switch brands and get their gas elsewhere, and they should, if they know what's best for them too. And damn any contract with BP, if EVERY BP station flips BP the bird, they won't be able to do a damn thing about it, because the american people will be behind YOU if you do .. and against you if you fail to do what's right.

Listen, I'm going to remind everyone and every day too that: BP will NEVER be the ones that will have to pay for this if YOU keep filling their pockets with money to do so. THEY won't be the ones actually paying for this, YOU will be .. if they can get more money from YOU.

And to these cowardly BP gas station owners that won't just flip BP the finger and tear up any of those contract and switch brands: just who's FLIPPING side are you on anyhow? SHOW US, hum? You best switch brands NOW before you realize some time later that you SHOULD HAVE when you had the chance!

Listen folks, remind everyone that the only way BP will be paying for this is THEY pay for this, and not YOU by using YOUR money to do so!

Originally posted by Justaposter

So for me personally... Big picture yes boycott BP.. smaller local picture, if it was my corner store and I used them regularly no matter what brand they display.. no, I don't think I could or would.

Will anyone actually read and "hear" what I have to say, I don't know. But I wanted to put it out there.

Maybe the big picture should be to protest BP for stricter safety measures and regulation and the small picture is to keep using the local gas stations. The economy is bad enough with a run on local businesses whose only crime is to be flying the BP flag. America can't afford anymore unemployed nor should any more innocent lives be affected.

Protest people...protest.

I really love you guys. However, you need to hear a few truths.

BP was once a British company wholly owned by both small stock holders who invested their life savings; large coporation investors and pension fund investment houses and it featured in the Top 100 of our FTSE.

Now, BP is a truely international company mainly funded by British and American pension fund investors and major stockbroking houses and banks.

Whilst I agree with President Obama that BP should be made to make good all the damages to the shore, the fishing communities and other water based industries in the affected area, you should remember that any boycot of BP or its products, ultimately, will affect US companies and US pension funds.

reply to post by Divinorumus


You have got to be kidding me? If next week a spill is caused by Shell will you boycott them? The following week Exxon? The same then.

And blaming the station owner. His or her business under very real threat and you want to lump them into the pile of vitriol already swimming about.