4 ms·
I guess I'm one of those weird outliers who has a use case but still won't use the service. My wife works nights and rarely remembers to fuel our vehicle. I c
by technofiend 10y ago
I guess I'm one of those weird outliers who has a use case but still won't use the service. My wife works nights and rarely remembers to fuel our vehicle. I commute via Uber or bus so I never have it either. $15/mo is still too much for the service. Sooner or later my wife will run out of gas and then she'll do a better job of remembering to fuel the truck.
- nostromo 10y agoI imagine it's quite a bit more than $15 a month. They probably bake some healthy margins into the price of gas.
- michaelmior 10y agoThey claim their prices for members are designed to be competitive with lower-priced gas stations in the area.
- rconti 10y agoI had never heard of this kind of service until a couple of weeks ago when I saw a Booster fuels truck. The advertised prices on the truck were a good 20 cents/gallon lower than the Chevron across the street from where it was parked. OTOH, I don't know if they use top tier fuels with whatever detergent packages or if it's Arco-quality gas, or what.
- shostack 10y agoHaving seen but never used Arco--is there a significant difference in gasoline quality? I had always been under the impression that it was largely a commodity product with the various additives largely being used to help differentiate from a branding standpoint and not actually doing much.
- ams6110 10y agoThere is basically no difference in gasoline brands. They all buy from the same area wholesalers. Some may vary on ethanol percentage and other additives but generally it's nothing significant.
- rconti 10y agoBack when I lived in WA, Arco was the "cheap gas" because they used the winter 10% ethanol blend (== less power and less fuel economy) year-round, whereas 'good' gas stations switched to ethanol-free in the summer. Now that I live in CA, everyone does 10% ethanol anyway. More and more it's hard to find non-ethanol gas anywhere. Supposedly the top tier brands use 'better' detergents, but I'd say the differences in brands are smaller than ever.
- walrus01 10y agoIn many major areas there are only one or two refineries anyways - it all comes from the same place and is rebranded. Sometimes with a tiny percentage of some special fuel additive poured in when they fill the gas station's tanks. For example in western WA there is Cherry Point or Anacortes. ARCO gas comes from the same place that refines petrol and diesel for 5 other major brands in the area.
- syedkarim 10y agoThere's no such thing as top tier fuel. Gas is bought off the spot market, just like orange juice. The quality of Arco's product on any given day could be identical to that of Chevron/Shell/more-expensive-name-brand.
- danieltillett 10y agoThere is such a thing as old gas which you don’t want in your car’s engine.
- onion2k 10y agoYou probably don't want to use fuel that's been sitting in a jerry can for years, but is that concern really applicable to gas stations? Surely even the worst of them would turn over their entire stock in a matter of days, so you'll never be buying particularly old fuel.
- danieltillett 10y agoYes you are right - I was just making the point that gas is not all equivalent.
- nick007 10y agoOur price per gallon is competitive with gas stations in your area (actually a bit below the AAA average).
- newman314 10y agoLower than Costco?
- superuser2 10y agoThe density of gas stations is high enough that it works just fine to take a little detour to one of the several gas stations on the way between anywhere and anywhere when the dashboard light comes on. This might be more useful if gas stations begin to fold because of electric cars.
- prawn 10y agoI think gas stations will gradually turn into something else. Already in Australia the serious ones are developing beyond just car refuelling.
- NegativeLatency 10y agoI think it's similar in America; AM-PM and 7-11 usually have "food" and also sell gas.
- bbcbasic 10y agoHuh? I remember this being the case in the 1990s. In UK at least
- prawn 10y agoIt's developing here to have co-branded outlets under one roof, looking very premium, sometimes sharing staff to minimise costs. Down the track, they may become distribution/pick-up hubs. Most of them are very well located.
- ams6110 10y agoI take advantage of fuel stops to check the oil, coolant levels, etc. and generally eyeball stuff under the hood, like the drive belts for alternator, AC, etc. I glance at the tires too. It's a nice way to do something productive while the pump is running and saves me from having to do that separately at home.
- camel_gopher 10y ago$15/month on top of gas fees? Not interested. Without the monthly fee though, very interested. There's almost always a wait for gas stations when I go, so this service makes sense.