The other day, my girlfriend and I drove by an old-looking gas station that had a “Shamrock” sign. My girlfriend asked how they could “get away” with using part of the Diamond Shamrock moniker. I said I bet it was just an old Diamond Shamrock sign, because it looked too much like the newer signs. But I really don’t know. Does anybody remember Diamond Shamrocks being just “Shamrocks”? Are both names still owned by the same company?
Sorry if this is a stupid question; I’m avoiding work as I type this.
Diamond Alkali, originally of Pittsburgh, PA was merged with Shamrock Oil and Gas of Amarillo, TX in 1967 to form Diamond Shamrock Corp. In 1960, Shamrock Oil and Gas acquired the Sigmor chain of service stations. In 1978, Sigmor bought back the service stations, but continued to distribute Diamond Shamrock products, however in 1983, Sigmor fully merged with Diamond Shamrock. They are now part of Valero Energy Corporation.
Just to throw another wrech into the gas pump, There is a new (maybe 1 year old) ‘Diamond’ gas station near me, just as "Diamond Shamrock’ got rolling w/ it’s ad campain in my area.
That same ad campain is used w/ Valero name in the NYC area (same song, just 'Diamond Shamrock" replaced w/ ‘Valero’, and slightly softer.
So… there are still Diamond Shamrock gas stations, AND Shamrock gas stations, right? Same company? Different companies?
My brother and I had originally assumed that “Shamrock” was kind of a low-rent knockoff of Diamond Shamrock, much like McDonald’s/McDowell’s in “Coming to America” with Eddie Murphy.
There are both Shamrock and Diamond Shamrock gas stations. There is one of each on the same road in my town. The logos are not the same. The Shamrock logo is just a shamrock. The Diamond Shamrock consists of three diamonds arranged in a shape vaguely reminiscent of a shamrock. The Shamrocks around here are newer and nicer-looking than the Diamond Shamrocks, but that is not true of other places where I have seen both stations.
I do not think that the two gas stations are related at the present time. I first noticed the plain “Shamrock” stations about 6 months ago here. They are new or refurbished buildings. On their website, Valero Oil does not mention the plain “Shamrock” brand (I could not find any website that refers to the plain Shamrock gas station).
After paying almost $2.00 today, I just noticed how low the price was when this picture was taken. I remember when I thought that $1.17 was outrageous
(I know, to some people in different parts of the country/world, paying $2.00 per gallon would not be too bad).
