Pumps at the Lukoil station at 401 Shrewsbury Avenue in Shrewsbury Borough aren’t idle much now that the station has dropped its prices below the other two service stations at the intersection. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
For years, it was a fact of Red Bank life you could rely on, certain as brown tap water after a hydrant flush or the ebb and flow of the Navesink River tides: the Lukoil gas station on the southeastern corner where Shrewsbury Avenue meets Newman Springs Road would be charging waaaay more for fuel than the other two stations at the same intersection.
It’s also been a befuddling head scratcher, spawning conspiracy theories and speculation around dinner tables and barstools for nearly a generation: Why do they charge so much more? How do they stay in business? What kind of nitwit would buy their gas there? In 2019, it was even featured on a TV news segment by a Red Bank reporter tormented by the questions and feeling too lazy to look beyond his own neighborhood for a story.
But one day over the past few weeks, Red Bankers awoke to a changed world.
Hold on to your gas tank lids, folks. Lukoil is pumping the cheapest gas in town.
“It’s weird,” said Mary Walenta of Middletown (pictured below) as she filled up her Volkswagon Tiguan Wednesday. Walenta was one of several people redbankgreen talked to who were stopping to fill up at Lukoil for the first time after years of driving past to use the two cheaper options at the intersection. “I saw the sign and said, ‘Wow! They’re competitive.”
Indeed, Lukoil was charging $2.95 a gallon for regular gas for customers paying cash, compared to $3.13 a gallon at both the Exxon across the street and the Shell on the northwest corner of the intersection.
That’s a big difference from the norm, which has seen Lukoil reliably and consistently charging as much as 90 cents more per gallon than its two neighboring competitors.
An employee who identified himself by his first name of Jai said the change came two weeks ago as the result of new ownership of the station.
“It was very high, so nobody wanted to come here,” he said. “We are making customers day by day.”
Indeed, redbankgreen saw a steady stream of customers, who, like Walenta, said they had pulled in for the first time after seeing the price difference.
In the 2019 TV segment, the owner of the Lukoil station said he charged more because Lukoil suppliers charged him more. In past years, some franchise owners have even protested these higher prices by raising them further, as a way of highlighting what they perceive as unfair pricing practices by Lukoil.
There is still a few mysteries we were unable to solve. Despite the employee saying ownership had changed hands, Monmouth County Property records show the property is still owned by the same entity that bought it from Getty Petroleum in 2009: Lukoil North America LLC, a subsidiary of the Russian-owned Lukoil parent company.
Business records on the ownership of the franchise were not immediately available and the employee said the owner of the station was unavailable.
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
