7 Eleven: the "Devil Made me do it"

It looks like 7 eleven will quit selling citgo over Hugo Chavez's remarks calling Bush the Devil at the UN. Well, that's what their spokeperson said: 7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, "Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060927/ap_on_bi_ge/7_eleven_citgo

In reality, thanks to commenter "Little", I found out that the right wingers have been crowing over this for a long time now. Here's an example: http://sadbastards.wordpress.com/2006/08/23/oh-thank-heaven-for-7-eleven-dropping-citgo/ So it's just crass marketing that they decided to jump on the bullsh*t bandwagon.

•  Where do you get your news? Malkin?

  Try here: http://tbogg.blogspot.com/

  First item in "A big bowl of wingnuttia"

  by Little on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 10:55:09 AM PDT

  •  I guess the new angle is

    that 7-eleven's spokesperson decided to shoot her mouth off about Chavez.

    It seems especially crass considering they had already decided to to this anyway.

    by dnamj on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 10:59:06 AM PDT

    •  Yeah, and idiotic

      And you could help by updating that, not to mention providing a link. A diary without a link is pretty worthless, IMO.

      by Little on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 11:00:13 AM PDT

      •  edited

        but looks like crap still. I'm not good at this.

        thanks for your help, I gotta do a little work now.

        by dnamj on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 11:15:56 AM PDT

        •  Thanks. it's not hard to

          hyperlink. Look in the FAQ. I don't know how to show the HTMl without it becoming a link.

          by Little on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 11:21:15 AM PDT

•  7-11 is foreign-owned

  "In November 2005, 7-Eleven, Inc. became an indirect subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings Company, a Japan-based organization."

  7-11 is foreign-owned by a bunch of risk-averse Asian businessmen.

  LINK:  http://www.7-eleven.com/...

  The profit on that slurpee that you bought last week is now sitting in a bank in Asia. (smile)

  by slip kid no more on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 11:07:25 AM PDT

  •  Doesn't surprise me

    It's all really about money anyway, INcluding the oil, the wars, all of it.

    by dnamj on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 11:16:36 AM PDT

•  No problem for me.

  The Citgo by me is a standalone station.  I haven't ever seen a 7-11 with a Citgo in front of it, but that may just be a Jersey thing.

  I believe 7-11 US HQ is in Dallas...I was under the impression they were owned by the Southland (?) company, which naturally scares me as a Yankee.

  And they are competing with the Hess station for the cheapest gas around.  $2.29/gal for Regular the other day.  Since Hess is also a "blue" corporation I try to alternate.  However since my car gets like 30 MPG I'm only a twice-a-month visitor ;)

  by ekthesy on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 11:40:25 AM PDT

•  CITGO says THEY canceled, and 2 months ago

  This story appears to be flat out wrong.  It was Venezuela / CITGO (PDVSA) which announced in a press conference in July that they would not be renewing a contract with 7-11 -- this according to CITGO president Felix Rodriguez.

  They feel that the whole association with the UN / Devil speech is an attempt to retroactively tar Venezuela once again.

  CITGO / PDVSA has had a strategy since late spring of re-evaluating a lot of their North American contracts because a lot of them were concluded by previous governments to unfairly give better terms to North American companies than would be given to any regular competitive provider.

  by el cid on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 07:07:42 AM PDT

  •  Wow, it just gets sicker.

    So now it seems like 7/11 is trying to spin losing the Citgo supplier by saying they cancelled the contract because Chavez called Bush the Devil. That is truly sick. Also par for the course.

    by dnamj on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 10:17:57 AM PDT

    •  Are we sure it's 7/11 spinning it?

      Or just a simple 'cut and run' with the story by the mindless major media?

      by el cid on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 11:07:56 AM PDT

      •  Well, the spokesperson quote

        really makes it seemlike they cancelled the contract after the UN speech. The MSM could be taking it out of context, though, to make it seem that way.

        by dnamj on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 11:11:11 AM PDT

  •  Change in Citgo Stragegy

    Apparently, Citgo had announced a change in strategy a couple of months ago, deciding to curb the stations serviced, so as to only supply gasoline from Citgo refineries.

    ---------------------------------------------

    http://online.wsj.com/...

    Citgo Will Stop Selling Gas
    At Stations in Some States

    By STEVE LEVINE

    July 11, 2006 9:02 p.m.

    Citgo Petroleum Corp., the Venezuelan state-owned company, said it will stop selling gasoline to hundreds of stations in 14 states over the next year.

    The move stems from a decision by the Houston-based company, a subsidiary of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, to stop buying gasoline from other refiners to serve the 13,000 U.S. stations it services. Instead, the company will sell just the fuel produced from its three U.S. refineries, which together can process up to 750,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

    The decision affects more than 1,800 Citgo-branded gas stations, in addition to others that buy the company's products. All Citgo customers in 10 states will be affected, along with some cities in four other states.

    In a statement released after the close of business Monday, Citgo CEO Felix Rodriguez said the company's customers had until next March to find other suppliers.

    Mr. Rodriguez said the purchase of outside gasoline had the impact of "straining our resources and potentially compromising our ability to provide optimum service to our customers."

    more...

    ------------------------------------------

    by PatriciaVa on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 04:05:17 PM PDT