Another Dream Died.....

When I first started my career the mom and pop fuel stops where just about everywhere. You always got fair pricing, a hello how are you, and a big thank you for stopping by...

The company I work for buys over 20 million dollars in fuel every year to keep equipment running on the road. When a corporation calls and says we can save you a few pennies on each gallon of fuel depending on how much you buy from us any good business would jump at the chance.

It didn't take long that three big corporations slowly over the last twenty years have taken over the mom and pops. Oh sure they have different names on the places with a slightly different look but ownership is in the hands of a few. This even generated a few monopoly lawsuits that were for the most part unsuccessful. Today in Utah one company owns 75% of the truck stops. In Montana it's even higher. One way around the monopoly law was to let a local to own and operate the place also known as a franchise place even though corporate runs the advertising and gets a profit from the place..

My guess it this is what happened to this place. Next door where I stopped for fuel was one of those big three places.