Blue Crab Boulevard

7-11 Store Chain Drops Contract With Citgo!

Wow. The 7-11 chain of convenience stores is dropping Venezuelan owned Citgo gasoline at over 2,100 locations and switching to other suppliers. The chain has had a contract with Citgo for 20 years but it dropping them because of Hugo Chavez's performance at the United Nations.

A spokeswoman for Dallas-based 7-Eleven said its 20-year contract with Citgo Petroleum Corp. ends next week. About 2,100 of 7-Eleven's 5,300 U.S. stores sell gasoline.

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.

Chavez has called President George W. Bush the devil and an alcoholic. The U.S. government has warned that Chavez is a destabilizing force in Latin America.

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."

Bam! A punch directly to the wallet. Three cheers for 7-11!

UPDATE: The AP story has been updated with a few new pieces of information. There may be a bit of opportunism on the company's part here to take advantage of some publicity.

Chabris said 7-Eleven's decision to sell its own brand was based on many factors, including Citgo's decision this summer to stop supplying stations in parts of Texas and other states to focus on retailers closer to its refineries in Corpus Christi, Lake Charles, La., and Lemont, Ill.

But 7-Eleven had been considering creating its own brand of fuel since at least early last year, and some analysts suggested 7-Eleven may now be hyping the political angle a way to curry favor with U.S. consumers.

I'd be kind of surprised if Chavez's antics had not had some effect on the decisions, though. He has been getting notably worse in the past year or so.

Business, World news | Gaius Wednesday, 27 September , 2006

By TC@LeatherPenguin, Wednesday, 27 September , 2006 @ 2:22 pm

“Oh thank Heaven, for Seven-11.”
By YouShouldGetOutMore, Wednesday, 27 September , 2006 @ 2:31 pm

Citgo announced it was dropping 7-11 and most Citgo and independant stations except those in the northeast over the summer. Declaring victory over Chavez based on this is like me claiming my strong commentary from yeserday is what made Japan surrender in WWII.
By Gaius, Wednesday, 27 September , 2006 @ 2:40 pm

Just quoting from their press release.
By Nell Breaux, Saturday, 30 September , 2006 @ 10:10 am

I just want to say how proud I am of 7-11 for dropping Citgo. I sent out a boycott request to all my friends and family and ask them to pass it on to all their E-mail buddies. I said Chavez could stoke the fires of Hell with all the gas the Americans wont buy anymore. So please let him and all the other heads of countries who want our money and help but spit in our faces every chance they get, that we aren’t going to take it anymore. If we dont stand up together and say “enough already” we will always be the worlds whipping post. God bless America