By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
The employees at the Stop n’ Shop gas station aren’t afraid to keep some old-time traditions alive – and many of the gas station’s customers have shown their appreciation.
The gas station, located at 211 Hopley Avenue in Bucyrus, celebrated its reopening with a ribbon cutting Wednesday morning. Deb Pinion, Director of the Bucyrus Area Chamber of Commerce, and Chamber board member Steve Lust joined manager James Cole, employee David Nickler, and district manager Terry Hasan for the ceremony.
The Swifty Gas Station became the Stop n’ Shop last year after it came under the new ownership of NZR Retail of Toledo. The new owners expanded the gas station to add a convenience store.
“We were closed for a time so they could redo the inside,” said Cole, who has worked at the gas station for over two years. “They also put new pumps in, too.”
But customers felt the loss of the gas station, even if it was for a short time. The Stop n’ Shop employees are known for pumping gas for their customers and, while the gas station had been closed for a number of months during a renovation, those same customers showed they weren’t quite willing to give up that convenience.
“When we first took over the store, we weren’t going to do full-service,” Hasan said. “Before we reopened people were still pulling up and saying, ‘It’s still going to be full-service, right?’ Almost every single car that pulled up asked that question.”
Nickler said he often taught customers how to pump their own gas for the first time while other customers took that demand up a few streets to the Shell gas station. Employees there temporarily took up the tradition of full-service while the Stop n’ Shop was out of service.
“We have some ladies whose hands are so bad with arthritis they can’t pump it,” Cole explained. “We have a lot of people that are so happy that we are back and we have full-service. I enjoy that because it’s helping the community.”
“Customers are our livelihood,” said Nickler, who was always quick to run out the door to pump gas or to run back in to deposit the customer’s payment. “We got to keep them coming and keep them coming back.”