Largs fuel is over priced

Published 1 Feb 2012 09:30 19 Comments

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A Largs businessman who once advocated a boycott of Largs' only filling station because of high prices has called for a reduction again.

Mr John Reid pointed out that he drove to Johnstone and Linwood for much cheaper fuel because it worked out cheaper.

The Largs Esso site which is now in receivership ran out of fuel for a week but is carrying on.

Full story and views in the Largs & Millport Weekly News of February 1.

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SheikOflargs
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Feb 1, 14:15
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That's the spirit..put another local business into the grubber..convert the site to be a charity shop/hairdressers/property rental/esate agents..the town has too much successful business as it is....!

Recommend? Yes 21 No 7
SheikOflargs
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Feb 1, 15:05
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Great idea, why don't all the old souls who desperately need their driving licences for a last shred of independence, just drive over an icy Haylie Brae in the depths of winter to show those racketeers we mean business...let's turn Largs into a Ghost Town!

Recommend? Yes 22 No 5
GET A GRIP
Unregistered User
Feb 1, 17:31
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could always make it into a carpark LOL

Recommend? Yes 10 No 3
Tam O Shanter
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Feb 1, 18:20
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SheikOflargs I come across these "Old souls" every day driving their little hatch backs slowly on the A78 Trunk Road holding up working people who often have a deadline to meet. They are selfish and arrogant the maximum age for driving should be capped at 70!.

Recommend? Yes 6 No 20
sir moanalot
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Feb 1, 20:50
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@SheikOflargs

if these "old souls" are deemed fit enough drive at all, they are fit enough to drive in all weather conditions, on all roads - just like the all other road users.

Esso are ripping off these old souls off too.

Recommend? Yes 5 No 16
c y clist
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Feb 1, 21:43
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There's been a lot of comment about this petrol station in the last couple of weeks.

On the question of the state of the forecourt I think it's a case of guilty as charged.

But I'm not so sure that the fuel prices really are so much of a rip off as some readers seem to believe. I find them comparable to most other filling stations across the west of Scotland in a similar situation in terms of location and market.

All fuel suppliers will charge as much as the market will bear - there's nothing new or unique to Castlebay in that - and even in big towns prices will be higher if there ISN'T a supermarket filling station just down the road.

No, it's not fair, but unless you want national regulation of fuel prices there's not much you can do about that.

And as for filling up for less at the supermarkets, well, I found out the hard way that the savings on a few tank fulls of fuel are outweighed many times by the cost of having my tank & engine drained and cleaned when I was sold 50 litres of contaminated diesel by a major supermarket.

These days I buy only from the major fuel companies, including Esso, even if they are a bit dearer.

Recommend? Yes 12 No 1
L Driver
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Feb 1, 23:10
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There's no reason Castlebay couldn't be very profitable if its owners played fair with the people of the town. For years it's had a monopoly in the town and Cumbrae drivers need it too. The fact is that Castlebay has been greedy: Esso isn't the issue - it was expensive when it was BP and frequently you didn't have to drive as far as Linwood / Johnstone to get cheaper petrol - you could get it cheaper in Fairlie and there's been a real lack of investment in the station. So locals (without the advantage of a supermarket forecourt) have tried to break the monopoly by buying only a few litres at Castlebay to take them to more competitively priced fuel.

Let's hope that any future owners don't make the mistake of pricing themselves out of the market.

Recommend? Yes 11 No 1
SheikOflargs
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Feb 2, 08:48
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Tam O Shanter, I'm surprised you get held up with your stereotyped OAP in a hatchback...I often encounter people with deadlines to meet diving locally, usually with total disregard for speed-limits/other road users/and general common sense safety. That's why the A78 has so many welders sticking the bent railings back together........!

Recommend? Yes 16 No 4
LIZ RILEY
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Feb 2, 15:20
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Dont be surprised if they move the petrol station to one of the 'three towns' just like they have moved everything else.Im beginning to think we live on an island.

Recommend? Yes 13 No 1
Tam O Shanter
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Feb 2, 18:16
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SheikOflargs The railings were possibly bent by vehicles forced to make unsafe manouvers to pass the slow drivers!.

There is an interesting letter in this weeks wee paper re slow drivers.

My reply...... I agree 100% it's time elderly drivers realised that we live in a 24 hour society. The days of loading a pick nick hamper into the boot of the Austin and going for a wee leisurely drive doon the coast are - sadly long gone. We have to get these selfish people off our roads.

Recommend? Yes 3 No 15
jimbob
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Feb 2, 18:58
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Lets drive for miles to get fuel, great idea NOT..... wee secret when you drive out of town to get fuel its costs money to do this. get it from largs or farlie job done...

Recommend? Yes 14 No 3
Frank Hall
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Feb 3, 11:48
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"bent by vehicles forced to make unsafe manouvers"

Nobody forces you to make an unsafe manouevre. If you ever find yourself wrapping yourself round my car, be sure as hell I'll make sure you get bled dry in court.

It's selfish morons such as yourself who are the biggest problem, slow drivers are a nuisance but those who take their lives, their passengers and those driving towards them deserve no sympathy when it all goes wrong.

As for the myth of supermarket fuels - it all comes from the same tanks, the only difference is the additives that are added by the sellers.

Recommend? Yes 14 No 7
SheikOflargs
Unregistered User
Feb 3, 11:51
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Tam, you will be old too someday, but then again thankfully probably not be

so improtant that every second counts. My advice to the 24/7 generation is... 1 plan your trip/don't leave 45 mins for a 1 hour journey...2 if it isn't on Amazon/E-bay it might just be in the wee shop doon the toon..(if they've not gone bust)

Recommend? Yes 13 No 5
Tam O Shanter
Unregistered User
Feb 3, 12:08
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Methinks have hit a raw nerve with Frank Hall!. In nearly 35 years driving I have never been stopped for any indiscretion, I have never even had a parking bump. Apart from the time an elderly man ploughed into my car...which was parked at the side of the road writing it off and leaving me over a grand out of pocket. No I did not bleed him dry in court such vindictive carry on is not in my nature. I accepted it was an accident and accepted the pittance from his insurance company.

I'm sure most Reasonable people will agree there has to be a time when you must give up driving. Personally I can't wait to get my free travel pass and give up driving :-)

Recommend? Yes 8 No 12
Arranshand
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Feb 3, 17:35
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As a regular customer of Castlebay Filling Station it will be a reall pity to see it go, have the proprietors ripped off customers or have they just charged what to them is the right price to allow the filling station to exist, I dont see the same boycott of exorbitantly priced Ice Cream Products etc in Largs, try buying your petrol in Brodick and you will soon wish you were back, support your local businesses who pay rates,VAT, Taxes and employ people from within your community, what a joy to visit Linwood famous for closed down things just to buy petrol.

Arranshand

Recommend? Yes 14 No 1
Dougal
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Feb 3, 21:53
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We need to understand that a business will always try and charge the price that brings it the optimum profit. If it really would make the station profitable to match the prices of Morrisons in Johnstone then of course they would have found this price level over the years.

As for driving to for example Johnstone for "cheap" fuel. You are likely to save at most 5p/litre. If you are running on vapour then you will get 50 litres into the tank, saving £2.50. The 38 mile round trip will cost, conservatively, 20p per mile (fuel plus wear and tear, depreciation etc), that is nearly £8. And also it will take you an hour to make the trip.

So all things considered Largs prices are competitive.

If you are passing Johnstone anyway then this is a different ball game, and it is completely unfair to compare a small station in a small town with an outlet of a major supermarket in a town twice the size adjacent to a major dual carriageway.

Recommend? Yes 11 No 2
John Reid
Unregistered User
Feb 4, 13:46
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Again I shall reiterate my point, Castle bay is overpriced, run down and a blight on Irvine road and Largs, their pumps are not fit for purpose as half of them are faulty or in bits. Their selection of overpriced and out of date goods is shameful and it beggars belief they are still trading.

On the other hand we have the petrol station in Fairlie which is also independently owned, well stocked with appropriately priced goods and a car wash. The forecourt is immaculate, the pumps work and the roof dont leek so why didn't the owners of castle bay try a little harder?

I still ask people to boycott his station, drive to Fairlie and who knows maybe the owners will have the sense to spend a bit of their dosh before they go into administration like the previous tenant. As the old saying goes, you have to speculate to accumulate and in their current run down state they ain't doing themselves no favours.

Recommend? Yes 9 No 9
Tam O Shanter
Unregistered User
Feb 4, 18:13
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I don't know John If you require a needle for your Dansett record player or an Aztec chocolate bar Castlebay should be the first stop.

Kidding aside I used to use this station every week until one day about 8 years ago when my run down battery failed to start my car and a woman emerged from the station screaming for me to push the car to the side. Customer services-seek's improvement!.

Ever since that bizarre and humiliating incident I have avoided the run down place and now I generally use the friendly wee station in Fairlie.

Recommend? Yes 9 No 5
C Y Clist
Unregistered User
Feb 7, 20:54
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I noticed on my drive home tonight that the Tesco fuel station in Port Glasgow is selling for exactly the same prices as Castlebay.

Incidently, there used to be an Esso station directly opposite which has recently shut, and I have observed the prices at Tesco climbed almost immediately.

All of which leads me to question who is ripping off who?

Recommend? Yes 7 No 1

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