I was surprised to see a Philips 66 gas station in Manchester, MA. I hadn’t see one in NE in years-suppose you owned one, and the company decided to get out of the area-could you still use the name (as an independent station)? Suppose you had a station, and sold one brand of gasoline under another name-would that be fraud?
Most gas stations are franchises so there probably is a way for you to run a station under their name.Just like you could open your own McDonald’s or Napa Auto Parts.
This would almost certainly depend on your individual franchise contract with Phillips 66. But I would seriously doubt that you could use that trademarked name unless you were actually supplying the product.
No.
You can be a franchisee of Pure or of Clark, but Phillips 66 is part of ConocoPhillips. Sometimes I wonder if those far-flung stations just get forgotten by corporate. There’s a Union 76 station near Stevens Point, WI that seems to still be selling gas.
It is a corporate franchise, so you’d have to have a current, active contract in order to use the name. According to wiki Phillips Petroleum merged with Conoco in 2002, and the gas station portion was spun off in 2012 and uses the old Phillips 66 brand name. This might explain why there aren’t many stations of theirs in your area. When Exxon and Mobil merged most all of the Exxon stations in my area either closed, went generic, no-name gas, or converted to the Mobil name.
You definitely **cannot **buy gas from another supplier and sell it under a different name without permission. There was an Exxon station around the corner from my house for decades. It was bought by a young, inexperienced guy who did just that. Don’t know if he was prosecuted, but Exxon yanked the franchise name. It was a generic station from then on. Note that this is mostly a business issue, as the gasoline distribution network itself is often used by multiple oil companies, and different ‘brands’ of gasoline are mostly identical…
When Blockbuster went under, I recall reading that there were a few franchisees in the Northwest who, due to some quirk in their agreements, would be able to keep operating using the Blockbuster name.
Does anybody know if this actually happened, and if any of these guys are still around?
Within a particular region, most all stations, regardless of their brand get all of their unleaded gasoline from the same source (a local refinery or a distribution pipeline). The major brands take the unleaded gas from the source and then add their own unique additives, etc. so that it meets the specifics of their brand and then distribute it to their local stations. So if you see an unbranded station selling gas across the street from a branded station, most likely the gas is coming from the same source. The unbranded just won’t have the added detergents etc.
ETA: I know of exactly one (1) functioning video store within a reasonable drive from my house, and its selection is really pretty crappy. So even if these guys did survive, I’d be surprised if they’re still around.
I can’t swear to it being true but I’ve heard the same story. Some Blockbusters were individually owned franchises and had the legal right to keep operating under the name even though the corporation stopped.
I’ve heard the same thing about Borders; that a few of them stayed open as independent bookstores.
Okay, I found the list of the Blockbusters that survived the chain’s closing in 2013:
Seven in El Paso, Texas
Six in south Texas: one each in Brownsville, Edinburgh, Harlingen, McAllen, Mission, and Weslaco
One in Pleasanton, Texas
Four in Anchorage, Alaska plus one each in nearby Eagle River, Kenai, Soldotna, and Wasilla
Two in Fairbanks, Alaska plus one in nearby North Pole
Two in Juneau, Alaska
Six in western Indiana: one each in Delphi, Demotte, Knox, Monticello, Rensselaer, and Rochester.
Three in Bend, Oregon plus one each in nearby Madras and Redmond
One each in Molalla, Oregon and Sandy, Oregon
Two in Somerset, Kentucky plus one in nearby Russell Springs
Two in Rapid City, South Dakota
One in Bemidji, Minnesota
One in Corinth, Mississippi
One in Fort Pierce, Florida
One in Grand Forks, North Dakota
One in Opelousas, Louisiana
You’ll notice many of these are clustered together, which reinforces the idea that they were owned by a single franchise owner.
I can’t guarantee all of these are still open by I googled several of them and they appear to still be in business.
For years, a guy operated a Howard Johnsons Restaurant in Greenfield, MA. This was decades after the chain had gone under.
As of this past April, there are still 2 going. http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2015/04/29/golden-years-for-orange-roof-last-2-howard-johnson-restaurants-soldier-on/
For BlockBuster some franchisees may have had a different contract. I believe they acquired a number of other chains to get started and those owners could have required special terms in the sale. Of course they’d stick with the BlockBuster name if they could because it is so recognizable.
As for Phillips 66, maybe that guy’s been waiting for a new sign for years