Farmington Fuel Chronicles II: British Invasion (#10)

Shell's repurposing of the old Ruby Tuesday wasn't the only fuel development at 12 and Orchard Lake as of late...

Just as the intersection's newest addition was opening for business, its neighbor across the street, Mobil, was undergoing some changes.

Nothing to see here folks... for now (September 2021)

One October afternoon, I was passing through the intersection and noticed that the Mobil signage had disappeared from the building and canopy.

(October 2021)

I found this strange, as this station had been a Mobil as long as I could remember; it turns out it'd operated under the brand since its construction in 1990. Given that the sign was recently changed to reference an "Exxon Mobil Smart Card," I figured it was just going to be renovated...

until the last Mobil sign was covered by a tarp two days later.

Remember when gas was this cheap? (October 2021)

The same would soon happen to two other nearby Mobils, at 12 Mile and Middlebelt and 13 Mile and Orchard Lake. Very similar in build to the 12 & Orchard location, these two had also been Mobil since opening in 1990.

13 Mile and Orchard Lake (October 2021)

Scattered on the grass at 12 and Orchard Lake were receipts from the station's fuel pumps. I picked one up and was surprised to find Chillbox, the convenience store brand of Macomb County-based Bazco Oil, printed as the station's brand. Bazco is a franchisee of multiple fuel brands across Metro Detroit, chiefly Sunoco, Valero, and Shell, operating 24 Chillbox locations prior to the acquisition of this trio. The company already had a presence in Farmington Hills, having opened a Chillbox store at the Sunoco-turned-Shell on 9 Mile in early 2019.

The three stations continued to operate unbranded into the new year, and by March the blue trim was removed from the canopy, exposing an old labelscar.

12 Mile & Orchard Lake (March 2022)

Bazco filed plans with Farmington Hills's city council in February to demolish them and construct new stations in their places. The rebuilt 12 & Orchard Lake station was to include electric vehicle charging stations. But in spite of this, it seemed they planned to keep the existing stations, as come April, the canopies were painted white, the Mobil branding and colors disappeared from the pumps, and banners appeared at the two stations on 12 Mile, revealing their new brand:

12 Mile & Orchard Lake (April 2022)

12 Mile & Middlebelt (April 2022)

BP wasn't what I was expecting, but more so carried the feeling of "I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that."

I wondered what would become of the 13 and Orchard Lake location, figuring it wouldn't be branded with a Helios, given the presence of an existing BP at the corner.

It had somehow escaped me that BP now had another brand in the US.

13 Mile & Orchard Lake (May 2022)

Oddly enough, while most of the branding at the long-established BP was intact, the chain's logo had disappeared from its streetside sign.

(May 2022)

As fuel prices peaked in June, the new signs and lighting were installed on the canopies; the new pumps, seemingly from a Shell, were redecorated soon after.

12 Mile & Middlebelt (June 2022)

12 Mile & Middlebelt (July 2022)

12 Mile & Orchard Lake (July 2022)

13 Mile & Orchard Lake (July 2022)

13 Mile & Orchard Lake - old BP on southeast corner (left) & new Amoco on northwest (right) (July 2022)

As the summer went on, Chillbox branding began to surreptitiously appear, and the buildings were painted dark gray.

(July 2022)

12 Mile & Middlebelt (July 2022)

Passing the station at night, I noticed that at the two BPs, one side of the canopy lacked actual lighting, but were rather painted to look like BP's "neon," which, upon further inspection, turned out to be lit with LEDs at this trio.

12 Mile & Middlebelt (July 2022)

Progress seemed to stall until a dark October morning, when a new, and surprisingly small, BP sign appeared at 12 & Orchard Lake, in place of the old Mobil sign.

12 Mile & Orchard Lake (October 2022)

A crew was hard at work adding Chillbox signage to the convenience store's exterior.

12 Mile & Orchard Lake (October 2022)

With it, the station's transformation was finally complete - over a year later.

BP's canopy lighting has always looked stunning at night - this one was no exception. (October 2022)

13 & Orchard Lake would follow later in the week with a new Amoco sign. It, too, was posted at the same place as its predecessor; a placement I don't quite understand, as it's rather hard to see from Orchard Lake.

13 Mile & Orchard Lake (October 2022)

It, too, looked amazing in the early morning, with its red-and-blue "neon" lit.

13 Mile & Orchard Lake (October 2022)

The elder BP's sign had returned at some point, so its disappearance seems to have been a red herring.

(October 2022)

And finally, on the afternoon of October 20th, the trio's remodels were finally complete, capped off by the new sign at 12 & Middlebelt, the smallest of the three.

It's always amazed me how long it seems to take for a fuel station to go through a simple rebranding. Take, for another example, the Sunoco stations at 13 & Orchard Lake and 12 & Middlebelt - they'd lost their Valero signage in early 2019, before undergoing a similar nearly-year-long story arc before being fully immersed in Sunoco branding. The only local store I've seen make a quick changeover, was, ironically, the Mobil off M-5 at Freedom and Orchard Lake, which had completely overhauled away from its prior BP branding in a mere month in 2019.

BP's new presences in the Farmington-Farmington Hills area weren't limited to the Chillbox trio, though...

When I drove by Speedy Gas, a longstanding independent station at 10 Mile and Middlebelt, in August, I was surprised to see that it, too, had been rebranded with a green-and-yellow Helios.

(August 2022)

This was surprising - not only because Speedy had gone so long without a national brand, but also given that BP had previously abandoned a station at this corner.

(Google Street View, 2007)

If memory serves, the original BP closed in 2009, and the station sat abandoned until it was acquired by Dandy Oil and reopened under the Citgo brand in 2011.

With BP's return to 10 & Middlebelt a decade later, quick work was made in rebranding Speedy; the convenience store already had a new facade, and a sign for BP's "to go" brand was complemented by green-and-yellow trim.

Less than a month later, the sign was redone, with the permanent BP logo and a new digital price display added.

A few subtle remnants, however, still remained, hinting at the station's former brand.

Speedy's other location, a mile and a half south at Grand River Avenue, remains intact.

British Petroleum's other two new locations in the Farmington area are new builds - the first, an Amoco at 9 Mile and Farmington Roads, began construction in early 2021. A Clark-turned Citgo once stood here, though abandoned for its last decade, before being completely demolished for the new Amoco. It's taken an exceptionally long time to construct; it was seemingly complete when I visited in August, but as of press time, it has still yet to open.

I'd gone in the early evening, in hopes of seeing the red-and-blue canopy lights illuminated; I didn't have any luck, though the store's "to go" sign did light up while I was there.

I couldn't resist the urge to light up its snazzy, brick-adorned street sign, even if only for a few seconds. Little did I know, it'd also turn on the price displays...

When the station opens, its petroleum-based fuel offerings will be complemented by two ChargePoint DC Fast electric vehicle charging stations.

The British oil giant's final new entry into the Farmington area is a newly-built BP on Northwestern Highway between Middlebelt and 14 Mile, across the field from Warner Middle School. It stands on the former site of a building home to numerous restaurants over the years, most recently two deli and cafe establishments, Vineyards and Cork and Rye. The Northwestern corridor is infamous for restaurant closures, so it's hardly a surprise to see the building demolished, though a BP's construction was a plot twist I certainly didn't expect.

This location features Wayne's new touchscreen pumps. I've never understood the reason for these; they strike me very much as innovation for innovation's sake. Invention has moved out of its mother's basement, as I often say.

This BP has also yet to open for business as of press time.

Thanks for shopping Oakland County Retail!
Sorry for the infrequent postings - I haven't had nearly as much free time as I expected lately. I'll hopefully be able to post more frequently following the midterm elections.