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Service station owner to pump his last gallon this month
Published: Sunday, July 06, 2008
The high cost of gasoline has claimed another victim, one that will surprise many people: Brennan's Sunoco in Northfield.It's the end of an era at Tilton and Fire roads in Egg Harbor Township, where Brennan's has been providing classic customer care - washing windshields, checking oil, putting air in tires - seemingly forever. If you want to see what a full-service gas station used to be - complex, colorful and nearly spotless - better visit before the end of the month."After 35 years, I've decided that the smelly gas business is not for me anymore," owner Mike Baxter said Thursday. "There was always a profit in gas, and I made a nice living on it, but in the last few years it has gone."Brennan's always was a leader in volume of gas sold among Sunoco stations, Bax-ter said, and even now is in the top five in the region stretching to Connecticut.But now, as he nears retirement age, he finds that price competition is everything, even as his costs soar.
itably go the way of other states, where one big company dominates gas retailing.That will mean an end to window washing unless you do it yourself, and that has Baxter worried about some of his longtime customers, especially the older ones."Some customers are saying, 'You've always taken care of me. When I need air in the tires, where will I go?' I don't know what to tell them," he said.Baxter also has quietly supported many local charities and service organizations, hosting car washes at the station or providing a dunk tank for a fund-
raising event. For 10 years, he has collected money for the Sal-
vation Army and last year for the Red Cross, too."It's just part of life, that you give a little bit back," he said.Even though he paid a lot of money for the business de-
cades ago, Baxter said it's now not worth anything because he can't sell it.What he'll do instead is take his equipment, some of his experienced mechanics and most of his 3,000 customers and open a car repair-and-maintenance shop in August. It will be a bit farther west, near Storybook Land on the Black Horse Pike. Then, when he's ready to retire, the mechanics can buy out that business.That's got him excited again for the first time in years.He said he always enjoyed the business and found people to be "so sweet." And now he'll be able to spend some time with his parents, who aren't well."I've got many ideas how to make the new place pretty," he said.And his loyal customers can always go there for an oil check and tire inflation.E-mail Kevin Post:KPost@pressofac.com