It looks like major convenience store chain 7-11 is
taking no chances that Chavez's latest comments about Bush will hurt its bottom line. They have announced that they are dropping Citgo gas, and will be selling their own brand of fuel.
Citgo is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, and the foreign parent became a public-relations issue for 7-Eleven because of comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.[...]
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."
Chabris said a boycott of Citgo gasoline would hurt the 4,000 employees of the U.S. subsidiary, who have no connection to Venezuela.
Frankly, I'm not happy about this. 90% of the gas that goes into my tank is Citgo from 7-11, in part because they aren't Exxon Mobil.
I refuse to support a company like Exxon, whose outgoing CEO pockets thousands a day, while their current crew says "it wasn't prudent for the company to invest large amounts in alternative energy. Tillerson has said recently that he doesn't expect alternative fuels to replace oil in the next 30 years."
Although 7-11 claims that they were on the verge of switching to their own branded fuel anyway, it seems that they were pretty quick to react to the talking heads on FOX as they seeded the public's mind with boycott chatter. Did anyone hear about organized boycott or letter-writing campaigns directed to 7-11 for their CITGO gas?