Brooklyn, NY – The city’s BP stations are barely hanging on.
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Independently owned but tarnished by the BP name, the gas stations may not last through the spill-inspired boycott.
“If business doesn’t get any better, I’m going to have to shut down,” said Gull Khan, owner of a BP station on Flatlands Avenue in Brooklyn.
Business has fallen by 30 percent a week since the end of May, when a national boycott to protest the oil giant’s role in the Gulf spill gained momentum, Khan said.
“My employee had a shirt with the [BP] logo and someone screamed, ‘Bird killer!’ and ‘You’re killing the environment!’ ” he said.
“I had to drop the price from $2.95 to 2.79 a gallon to try and bring in customers.
“If business declines another 10 percent, I have to get out.”
All over, BP stations are feeling the pinch, said Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the Association for Convenience & Petroleum Retailing.
“What most are seeing is a silent boycott,” he said. “Customers are just melting away from the stores.”
So far, none of BP’s 11,000 retailers has gone under, but on average, they are seeing a 20 percent drop in sales, said the BP Amoco Marketers Association.
BP is working with station owners by reducing fees and providing signs that say “locally owned and operated,” said BP spokesman Scott Dean.
Throughout the city, many BP stations have been splashed with brown paint. Others have just had to endure daily harassment and protests.
“Some people stop and say you are in big trouble,” said Bill Faraci, 55, manager of the BP station on East 149th Street in The Bronx.
He nervously eyed the BP signs at the station.
“They are within reach of vandals,” he said.
Tyson Slocum, a petroleum analyst with the advocacy group Public Citizen and organizer of the boycott, said the effort’s goal wasn’t to hurt small-business owners.
“The goal is to send a clear message to BP and shareholders that criminal negligence in America is no longer going to be tolerated,” he said.
“BP ought to allow [owners] to break their franchise contracts.”
just tell the BP gas stations to lower there price and you will see how fast the people will come in.
More signs of anti capitalism/anti America . Music to the ears of our enemies around the world and not a peep from our aplogetic president .
The BP on Coney Island between N and O has frum owners, I think.
Let’s get together and support them!
They should not be forced to lose their parnassah because of some foolish mistake on the corporate end….
I don’t know why, but i accustomed myself to use bp gas only and my mechanic told me a while ago to stick to the same gas. now i don’t know if i can join the boycott
They should go back to the Amoco name. It is not the fault of these largely immigrant businessmen that the oil spill happened and is being mishandled.
A lot of these stations are Moslem owned. Let’s hope those go out of business.
If being a BP franchisee is a liability then the station owners should switch to Valero, Marathon, Irving or any of a number of other franchises. I am sure there are release clauses in the franchise agreement allowing termination if the parent company becomes too much of a liability.
The owners of the BP on Ocean Avenue and Avenue Z spotted a fire in the shul across the street from them set by an anti-Semite. You can support them too.
Even if they are privately owned- isn’t the gas still supplied by BP?
keep the prices LOW and I will show up for my fill-ups. No doubt about it. Increase them and I say fuggedabboutit
If a muslim owner with the name Khan closes his station, gam zu l’tova. He probably donates maaser from his profits to Hamas, Hezbollah, Osama Obama Bin Laden,etc.
Owner of BP on Coney Island ave btw N & O, is a baal teshuva who closes on shabbos at a great nisayon (he actually needed a special permission from BP to be able to do this). All frum Jews in the flatbush area should support him.
I agree that there are other gas company brands that retailers can sell for besides BP. I have a BP credit card, which I refuse to use. The next time that it comes up for renewal, I will send it back to BP. Let us hit them in their pocketbook for the environmental and economic damage that they have caused our country. If it was an American tanker which spilled oil in the English channel, our “friends” the Brits would be up in arms; yet, they dare criticize our legitimate protest against what they have done!
It’s simple if your prices will go down you will have more customers.
Hey I dont care which oil company made disasters as long as there are free refills I will go……
Support Jewish parnossa. All oil is equally guilty for this problem. Why not still boycotting Exxon?
I traveled thru northern NJ yesterday and noticed that the cost of regular gas at BP stations was the lowest $2.49.9