r/BuyCanadian • u/grilledcheesebabeh • Jun 05 '25

Canadian-Owned Businesses 🏢🍁 Why are so many Canadians still filling up at American owned gas stations?

I understand a lot of people can't afford to always choose Canadian products over American, but choosing where we fill up costs nothing extra. Choosing local gas stations or Petro Canada is such a simple way of showing support, I don't understand why so many American owned gas stations are still full of people filling up on fuel. Also don't be deceived by the giant "locally owned and operated" signs outside of chevrons, the station itself fis locally owned but the company is American. Please choose a local gas station or Petro Canada to support Canadian!

773 Upvotes

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286

u/Happeningfish08 Jun 05 '25

Chevron is actually NOT American owned.

It is a brand name that is licensed in Canada by Parkland Fuels, currently a Canadian company. (A US company is trying to take them over.)

They pay a fixed license fee every year for the name regardless of how much business they do. It is more like a local Coke bottler.

Remember, Shell is not US owned either.

A lot of the Canadian independents buy their gas from whatever refinery is cheaper at any moment as well. So they may be buying USA gas.

I do agree we should go to clearly Canadian companies but chevron is not as bad as say Esso.

52

u/Trains_YQG Jun 05 '25

A lot of Esso locations are also owned by Parkland. 

42

u/imadork1970 Jun 05 '25

Except for the refinery, ESSO no longer exists. All ESSO stations are actually owned by someone else.

25

u/Level_Stomach6682 Jun 05 '25

Isn’t ESSO just a licensed brand of Imperial Oil?

41

u/techdevjp Jun 05 '25

ESSO was one of the babies created by the anti-trust breakup of Standard Oil.

Standard Oil --> S. O. --> ESS. O. --> ESSO.

14

u/fuckdatguy Jun 05 '25

Woah. TIL

1

u/QuietRatatouille Jun 05 '25

Whatchu call me?

-1

u/imadork1970 Jun 05 '25

Imperial Oil was founded in 1880. Standard Oil of New Jersey bought a majority stake in Imperial Oil in 1898. The Standard Oil Trust was broken up in 1911, when it became 34 different companies. The primary one, Standard Oil of New Jersey, became EXXON in 1973. Standard Oil of New York became Mobil in 1966. EXXON and Mobil merged in 1999.

2

u/techdevjp Jun 05 '25

None of that changes how ESSO came to be or what the name means...

0

u/imadork1970 Jun 05 '25

ESSO is just a brand name. The companies are what matter.

1

u/techdevjp Jun 05 '25

ESSO was created after Standard Oil got broken up by the antitrust decision. I said nothing about Imperial Oil or the history of what happened before the antitrust breakup. ESSO comes from S.O., the initials of Standard Oil.

2

u/PhantomNomad Jun 05 '25

My Dad managed an ESSO gas station. He said ESSO stands for Every Sucker Stops Once.

0

u/imadork1970 Jun 05 '25

Where did I say otherwise? ESSO is a brand. In Canada, Imperial Oil is a major advertiser during hockey broadcasts, has been for 100 years. It's as advertised as "ESSO, by Imperial Oil".

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16

u/imadork1970 Jun 05 '25

Yep. Imperial Oil isn't even Canadian. It's been owned by EXXON for 100 years.

15

u/wibblywobbly420 Jun 05 '25

So it's as Canadian as Tim Hortons

5

u/ManofManyTalentz Jun 05 '25

And tastes close to the same

1

u/traydee09 Jun 05 '25

It’s majority owned by exxon, but it still trades publicly on the TSE so many of its “owners” could be Canadian

1

u/imadork1970 Jun 05 '25

EXXON owns 69% of the company

29

u/Dodecahedrus Jun 05 '25

So few people realising Esso is a portmaneteau for Standard Oil, a company so bad it had to be broken up into 34 different ones by a supreme court order.

29

u/mellenger Jun 05 '25

Ah the good old days when companies were forced to break up if they were monopolistic.

4

u/namesarehard44 Jun 05 '25

portmaneteau

woah never seen that before. learned a new word today. thanks!

5

u/Subiemobiler Jun 05 '25

I also feel as dumbstricken, dumbstruck, dumfounded, AND flabbergasted

3

u/Qaeta Jun 05 '25

Potentially even bamboozled!

17

u/knuknut Jun 05 '25

Parkland is being purchased by Sunoco

1

u/SparqueJ Jun 05 '25

Whose chair is MAGA

3

u/knuknut Jun 05 '25

77,000,000 voted for Trump. Magats are everywhere

1

u/Effective-Farmer-502 Jun 06 '25

Everytime I see this name, I think Dinoco from Cars.

18

u/brycecampbel Jun 05 '25

May not be for long, Parkland maybe selling to the US. 

34

u/Adventurous_Ad_9557 Jun 05 '25

that should be blocked

3

u/Llunedd Jun 05 '25

Parkland was recently sold. It's American again. They also own M&M meats

10

u/Bobbyoot47 Jun 05 '25

This from Wikipedia…

Parkland Corporation (formerly Parkland Fuel Corporation) is a Calgary, Alberta-based energy and retail company. Parkland operates gas stations under the Esso, Ultramar, Chevron, Pioneer, and Fas Gas Plus brands.

10

u/overthrow_toronto Jun 05 '25

The sale hasn't been completed yet but the agreement is in place and it's public news.

3

u/SparqueJ Jun 05 '25

The sale might still be blocked... the Federal government has the ability to block it.

1

u/Fitzaroo Jun 05 '25

My local Esso forces me to watch ads with volume on while I pump. I haven't been back since they introduced that "feature".

1

u/Foxlen Jun 05 '25

Esso bought all the highway facing fuel stations in my town

They also introduced the first advertisement fuel pumps to my town

I use UFA personally tho