i’m not voting… i mean, i typically don’t go to citgo because there’s none by me.  given the choice between citgo and something else, i’d choose the other place if there wasn’t a huge price difference.

i mean, i happen to like the hess by me better than the amoco.  amoco is often $.01 cheaper, but i still go to the hess.  but, the sunoco is sometimes $.03-.05 cheaper, and i will go there instead of hess.

at this point, every litteral penny counts.  i drive ~70 miles round trip to work daily, and that doesn’t include meetings, court, etc.  i fill up my car usually 3x every 2 weeks.  that’s a lot of money these days.

also, i would like to know who has their dirty little paws in other gas companies, but i just don’t have the time to do that kind of research.  it seems that it would be a great thing for you to post, though.  let’s say EvilLeader A has his paws in Gas Station 1, and EvilLeader B has has paws in Gas Station 2, maybe i would like to avoid both, but would still rather A than B.

(or, i could be making no sense, since i’m coming off of a CRAZY day *plus* i have a headcold!)

I don’t think there is one anywhere near my location.

There are at least three new Citgo stations within easy reach and I will avoid them (primarily because the station across the street is 1-2 cents/gallon cheaper), but a boycott wouldn’t do anything to Baby Hugo, and would hurt a lot of American workers.

It wouldn’t harm Chavez because he has already sold the oil to the refineries, and oil is fungible - that is, once it has been processed, one gallon is as good as any other, so if we refuse to buy from Citgo, the employees could get laid off, and the company will end up selling the (already-processed) gas to the other chains in order to make up the unexpected brand-shift-driven demand spike. That demand spike is also going to end up pushing prices up a touch, which hurts everyone.

Venezuela is our second largest supplier of petroleum products, just behind Canada. That kind of money has given Hugo a swelled head. Maybe we should find some way to deflate that sucker.

You get more oil from Venezuela than Saudi? Wow. That flipped pretty quick. And you’re right, not buying from Citgo doesn’t actually hurt Citgo. It hurts whomever the independent owner/operator of the gas station happens to be. Citgo isn’t in the retail business, other than to sell their brand identity.