This news calls for a chili-cheese Big Bite and a Coca-Cola Slurpee!
7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier after more than 20 years as part of a previously announced plan by the convenience store operator to launch its own brand of fuel.
7-Eleven officials said Wednesday that the company’s decision was partly motivated by politics.
Citgo Petroleum Corp. is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-run oil company and 7-Eleven is worried that anti-American comments made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez might prompt motorists to fill-up elsewhere.
Chavez has called President George W. Bush the devil and an alcoholic. The U.S. government has warned that Chavez is a destabilizing force in Latin America.
“Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans’ concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela’s president,” said 7-Eleven spokeswoman Margaret Chabris.
“Certainly Chavez’s position and statements over the past year or so didn’t tempt us to stay with Citgo,” she added.
Instead, 7-Eleven, which sells gasoline at 2,100 of its 5,300 U.S. stores, will now purchase fuel from several distributors, including Tower Energy Group of Torrance, Calif., Sinclair Oil of Salt Lake City, and Houston-based Frontier Oil Corp.
Now, how about replacing that Citgo sign in Boston with one from 7-Eleven?
7-Eleven dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as gasoline supplier…
7-Eleven is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier after more than 20 years as par…
I’m proud to say I loaded up on a super big bite and bottle of Big Cola today at 7-11. (I live in Mexico, where Hugo Chavez unsuccessfully tried to meddle in the election. Big Cola is a knock-off brand.) If only 7-11 here could dump PEMEX - an evil oil monopoly -for something else.