7 - 11 converts from Shell to Petro-Canada
FTLComm - Tisdale - Wednesday, June 2, 2010
This is the third retailer to leave Shell. The shop downtown left Shell in the fall and went to Domo and now 7 - 11 is switching to Petro-Canada. This is after Shell decided to end its bulk fuel sales in Canada and Tisdale's Bulk Shell plant shut down. No reason was given by anyone from 7 - 11 for the change over but there can be some problems with a company when it loses dealers or decides to remove itself from a marketplace.
For the consumer this returns Petro-Canada to the regular retail market in Tisdale. I and many others often buy gasoline for my vehicle at the Petro-Canada Bulk dealership but it does most of its business with the bulk consumer.
One of the loses for the consumer is that Shell gave out airmiles. With Shell gone from Tisdale the only place you will get airmiles now is at Fairburn Tire and from SGI. Petro-Canada does have a points incentive programme which it advertises as though it were a real thing but I have found it very difficult to redeem Petro-Canada points. In more than one instance I have had Petro-Canada outlets tell me that they can't do it or perhaps they just won't do it, one way or the other redeeming Petro-Canada points is not something you can count on. A lady assured me that they 7 - 11 folks in Tisdale would trained to redeem points and that they could be counted on and used for any purchase in the store. Let's see how that works out.
The conversion began Monday and will take most of this week to get the signs and details looked after.
