"I understand people are angry and upset, and they have a right to be. But they're taking their anger at the wrong people.... If they want to have a protest at the park or somewhere else, super. But to come to my station to do it, and tell people not to buy my products or come inside my stores, to bash my business without even knowing us is hurtful."
June 24, 2010
Getting mad and protesting at your local BP gas station.
Around here, we've had some laughs — when we pass a BP gas station — talking about going in and acting all outraged about the big oil spill and giving whoever happens to work there a hard time, but now I see people really are protesting.
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58 comments:
That's awful. The station owners have nothing to do with BP.
We had a Citgo at the base of the hill just outside my neighborhood. When Chavez's started really heating up, a lot of people in the neighborhood decided to boycott. Within a couple of months it had changed all of its signage to West Express (which I checked for but never could find as a franchiser).
As far as I know, that gas station is no longer affiliated with Citgo. I didn't set out to put a franchisee out of business, but damned if Hugo was going to get a dime from me.
I rarely shop at convience stores, but I'm trying to make sure that if I do, I do it at a BP one, just to help them out a little bit. As Freeman said, it's not the shop owner's fault.
- Lyssa
Arco, our local BP owned company, is, by far, the cheapest gas in Southern California.
There's not an oil company that is innocent, so I'll stick with the cheapest. Indeed, BP is still much more upstanding than Citgo. Boycotting companies because of their practices is an unending battle. I'll focus my angst elsewhere.
People are idiots and easily manipulated sheep. Or as Lenin put it: useful idiots.
We deserve Obama and the reign of horror that he is foist upon us.
Too bad. Our kids and grandchildren don't deserve it.
The deliberate policy of Obama & Co. not to let the skimmers skim and not to let the berm builders build their berms based on the flimsy excuse that they don't meet niggling federal requirements to the letter of the law should have triggered congressional IMPEACHMENT proceedings on the vicious commie thug.
I don't think people know the whole process in which gas gets to their pump. The local station owner could just as well be serving up any of the other companies. The only connect to BP is the sign. Then consider that BP has not gone to court, but has only been vilified by our president. This is another example of our great president stepping on the lives of others to makes himself look good.
If you want to protest something, go down the the government buildings and let them have it. They are the ones that took a bad accident and made it into a catastrophe. They are the ones that are crippling the economy at every move and especially with the ban on drilling. They are the ones that said BP had a great safety record. They are the ones that do not allow drilling is safer areas. They are the ones that will not allow us to build sand dykes and use foreign aid.
As Leno said, Obama was so mad when he heard that Hayward was out sailing that he missed his putt.
... meet niggling federal requirements..
It looks like Princess Leia was right. The teabaggers ARE all racists.
Not only do the station owners have nothing to do with BP, the gas might not be from BP.
Paddy,
What are the oil companies guilty of? BP may have a bad safety record and engineers may say, after the fact, that the well could have been done differently, but the blowout was a law of statics. No matter what you do the math will catch up with you and something bad will happen. This is the first major blowout in decades. Find another industry that can match that.
The oil companies came to my house and wanted to drill for gas. I told them they could have the whole backyard! They laughed and said they had a better place, but we support drilling and oil production. If you don't, quit driving, using your heater, using your computer, etc.
How will BP pay for their mess if their revenue stream dries up?
On topic, I understand the frustration, but BP is a big company, and boycotting the franchises just hurts them without really hurting the company as a whole. It's like when people tried to figure out how to boycott Iraqi oil when Saddam Hussein still ruled Iraq: Oil is fungible, and it's not segregated by source.
Somebody is going to buy the oil they pump and refine. Also, there was a story linked to by Instapundit about an investment banker saying BP should have a contigency plan of bankruptcy. Driving BP into insolvency doesn't plug the leak, or clean up the Gulf.
Yeah, that's too bad. People just don't think.
Again: Boycotting works when a company is trying to keep a clean image, and you're drawing attention to something unsavory they're doing to make them change their behavior, something not widely known, for example. Or its a political message you're sending to someone else.
None of this really applies to BP. They can't un-blow up the rig. They're trying to cap the well and clean up the Gulf now. Their image is already tarnished, and its already gotten plenty of media attention. And the politicians and oil industry already know how bad it is (for them).
Hey shmuck Brian, the origin of niggling is the Scandinavian word niggle, circa 1600. I guess those Scandinavians were racist in advance of any contact whatsoever with blacks, right you small minded niggardly reductionist lefty?
Brian got hot flashes when he saw niggling because it's so very close to N word. Then he called someone a tea**gger and got 'em all over again.
I like this idea. We should have protests on the lawns of every Obama voter. They ARE personally responsible for a lot of my anger and the disasters I'm angry about.
I thought Brian was joking.
Someone PLEASE tell me he was joking.
Hey Brian, are you from PA? You look just like an old friend of mine named Brian.
Hate to tell you this, but all of you are buying BP gasoline. Study the distribution system. All gas stations sell the same base products, they then tweak them with BP Invigorate, Shell nitrogen, etc.
Most amazing is the fact that petroleum products are in almost everything we use today. Your freaking I phones are 90% petroleum! (Soylent green! It's PEOPLE!)
Of course Brian was joking. This is a site run by a law professor.
The gasoline is fungible, but the additives and detergents, and the proportions, are BP decided. Which is the real way that generic gasoline becomes "BP Gasoline", or "Shell Gasoline", or any other brand of gasoline.
That aside, these boycotts still don't really do anything but make the boycotters look silly.
Within a mile or so of my house, I can buy gas at a BP convenience store -- that's the closest --, or a Mobil Service Station (that gives a portion of its proceeds to West High for all sales on Tuesday), a Shell Station, an Open Pantry, or an Independent Seller -- the old U-Pump that I swear used to exist solely to launder money.
I usually go to the Mobil station. If you have a lot of choices, why not say something with your choice? The oil spill has decreased my likelihood of using the BP station. The Convenience Store owners *could* work to get me back as a customer, but whining about how unfair life is is not the way to do it.
....but we support drilling and oil production. If you don't, quit driving, using your heater, using your computer, etc.
As well as quit eating food, drinking water, using toothpaste, flushing your toilet, cooking eggs, ad infinitum.
There is not much in society that does not ultimately rely on oil to create a product, process it, get it to the consumer, get it home, use it and dispose of it.
I completely agree with everyone who has said the franchisees are blameless. In fact, the gas station owners I've known over the years probably hate the brand-name companies with more sustained and informed anger than a bunch of protesters could ever muster.
OTOH... Signs are symbols. Protesting is symbolic. As long as they don't interfere with business, what's wrong with using the BP sign as a convenient gathering point for a local group to express its opinion about BP?
When people protest the federal government by marching around outside the federal building in Westwood, the main people affected are a bunch of powerless federal staffers just punching the clock. Nobody seems to mind if they are used as symbols.
BP = oil spill in the gulf.
Citgo = an instrument of the Socialist Baboon of Venezuela.
Exxon = Valdez wreck in Alaska.
Shell = Nazi collaborators.
ConocoPhillips = long time poodles of Libya.
Chevron = multinational tax cheats.
La-la-la-la-la-la-la...
Someone in England is reading this article and muttering
racists
We can also blame Fundamentalism on Big Oil.
BP may have a new "poodle" in charge soon.
Holy Cow, Tony Blair looks like hell. I wonder what illness he's just been through?
ricpic, I thought the same thing. He's only 57.
Madison Man: Way to go!! Like President Obama you are a big picture guy and making your point and making yourself feel better about yourself is far more important than the jobs of the immigrants down at the BP station. All those greasy rednecks and coon asses and immigrants working in the oil business (and that means anything w/ an oil company logo on it) can pound salt until they satisfy you. Way to go.
"we've had some laughs — when we pass a BP gas station — talking about going in and acting all outraged about the big oil spill and giving whoever happens to work there a hard time"
How in holy hell does someone consider acting like Ashton Kutcher 'some laughs'.
It's interesting that you (Michael) assume that immigrants are working at my local BP store. They must have immigrated recently from northern Europe.
Well I am going to go out and buy some BP signage as fast as they take it down like those American Pickers guys.
I bet that shit is gonna be worth a lot in twenty years.
I thought the same thing. He's only 57.
Not aging as well as Prince Albert.
ricpic wrote: Hey shmuck Brian, the origin of niggling is the Scandinavian word niggle, circa 1600. I guess those Scandinavians were racist in advance of any contact whatsoever with blacks, right you small minded niggardly reductionist lefty?
Scandivanians are blonds right? They must be automatic racists because they're Arayan-looking.
Brian wrote: ConocoPhillips = long time poodles of Libya.
I buy diesel #2 from Union 76 owned by ConocoPhillips. So I guess I buy my hydrocarbons from poodles.
Better those poodles than a carbon indulgence-selling sex-crazed poodle who leaves behind oleaginous stains.
These three tall blond women came into the store yesterday. They looked like Valkyries and were jabbering away in a foriegn language. They all bought hats by the way.
Anyhoo, at first I thought they were Germans. So I told my lawyer who was standing there to go hide in the back. Just in case.
But they turned out to be from Norway.
Just goes to show ya, ya never can tell.
Hate to say this to all the anti-capitalists out there, but BP has a pretty good safety record in the industry. Note Transocean and Halliburton are ignored in the administration blame game.
Granted, the spill is an exception, but, from what we know about the precursors to this, the administration is culpable at least as much. They had two months' warning and did nothing and The Zero's retort about moving containment from other parts of the country ("we could have a spill there") verges on nonfeasance (impeachable?).
Whether this is another of Tippytoes' good crises remains to be seen, but it's looking that way more and more. Particularly since The Zero's money man, Dr. Evil, is currently making a fortune off this mess. Anyone who is interested can find out how much station owners have to do with BP, but it could it be the protesters are the usual useless idiots gulled by community organizers?
Dr. Evil
Soros?
Madison Man: Splendid correction. You are happy to put northern Europeans out of work instead of immigrants. Good on fucking you, MadMan. Good on you that you wouldn't single out red necks, greasers, immigrants and coon asses but are a true progressive and will go after the nasty northern Europeans working at a BP station. Manly man!!
Don't you just love it when liberals are boycotting regular working folks? Why do Democrats hate America?
Hate to tell you this, but all of you are buying BP gasoline. Study the distribution system. All gas stations sell the same base products, they then tweak them with BP Invigorate, Shell nitrogen, etc.
It is the additives that make the difference, everyone gets the same gas, additives are simply added to the truck tankers, and is what makes BP gas, BP, etc. I believe even the different gas brands are all mixed together in the pipelines.
Chevron [Techron] and Shell [V Power] I can definitely tell the difference in performance because I'm constantly stomping it, and gas mileage.
Anger at BP? We ain't seen nuttin' yet.
Wait until this mess hits the pristine white sand beaches of Naples, Sarasota and the Keys.
Unfortunately for them, the residents in LA, MS and Al don't have much, if any, political clout. However FL, as the Dems well know, can detemine the outcome of a presidential election.
I've found myself purchasing my malt liquor and smokes at Speedway stations instead of BP AM/PM stores. Just doing my part as one of the small people to bring the evil oil giant down.
Interesting.
I have actually made a point of buying at BP since this started.
This class warfare crap Obama promotes is very dangerous.
He's supposed to be all about community right?
It's not the BP investors, or the gas station owners, or the clerks, or the retirees' fault.
The milk is spilled. Money would be changing hands for it even without the unilateral shake down done by the Shaker in Chief (IF -- big IF, idiot protestor/boycotters -- BP doesn't go under).
They need to be protesting an administration that has truly done a crappy job at dealing with the spill.
As for CITGO -- when we realized the Chavez connection -- not a dime to a CITGO station since then. Different scenario altogether.
Branding is a double edged sword. The human instinct that makes an affiliation with BP valuable when times are good is naturally going to have an opposite effect when times are bad.
Probably time for BP to start dusting off those old Amoco/American and Sohio signs off that are in the back room and sticking them up on all the stations they've re-branded over the past 20 years (or they can just expand their Arco brand back to being a nationwide company like in the 1970s, instead of just limited to the west coast states).
It won't satisfy the hard line "I'm going to teach them a lesson" types, but the BP name right now is getting close to the point of no return when it comes to its brand image in the eyes of the American public.
the BP name right now is getting close to the point of no return when it comes to its brand image in the eyes of the American public.
True. The people running it have not been very effective at all in the past 2+ months.
I think the guy that runs my local BP station (directly across my back fence) might be very alarmed and confused by protesters. He's Indian, and his English is not that good. But I'll keep buying there, because BP's contribution to the cleanup is going to come out of their profit not their gross sales.
John Stodder: I'm with you. I'm not the protesting type (years ago I was) but I don't think protesting or boycotting are silly, even when I don't agree with the POV expressed. Whether anti-war, anti-BP, Tea Party, pro-life or pro-choice, etc., as long as it is peaceful, I say go for it.
They have protested out here in California as well.
One- It is NOT "aweful" to boycott BP, Arco, Amoco gas stations! They buy oil from BP so they are a link in the chain to BP. That's too bad for the owners, but maybe they should boycott BP as well! You people are morons actually going out to support BP!!! WTF is wrong with you idiots?! And what's with all the whiney right wing rambling? "Obama is a commie thug" etc.He does need to do MUCH more but youre George W and his cronies were straight up FASCISTS! You psycho "moral traditionalists" have your heads so far up your rear ends it's almost funny. Almost. BP should pay for everything it costs to everyone down to the fishermen, beach stores, etc. as well as paying heavy heavy fines and they should be kicked out of America. If there was a god, Tony's sail boat woulda sank when that pr1ck went on his leisurely cruise. I hope he's so stressed and drops dead of a heart attack. And Dustbunny- go dust, don't try to think anymore.
Honestly, I think the people of this country should shut down every BP station period, where the people do not allow idiots like some here to support them. It's been done in the past and it works! All you apathetic morons need to grow a pair and stop blowing executive falice. Why should we support businesses who support BP?! Makes NO sense at all! Shut the stations down, we should physically block anyone from entering their stations. Make them buy gas from someone else or go out of business!
Oh and for you schmucks who want to buy Arco because it's cheaper.....sorry for your car, that gas is horrible, gives the worst gas mileage and is is mostly water and also clogs injectors and the like much faster than other gases(I won't name names). Sometimes the price is higher or lower for a reason. And can't you pay a Few extra cents so you can show BP that you are unhappy with them? If not, what will they care? The environment is not their concern. It's profits and profits only! You see kids how boycotting will work now? sheesh.....
BJM- EVERYONE knows that Florida didn't decide the election. The republican party did when they "fixed" it.
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