Kevin Dixon, manager of Ridgeway Grab & Go, lacks a way to advertise the prices for gasoline at his Shell Station due to delay in the shipping of a new sign configuration box.
Dixon said, “We have the cost per gallon posted at the pumps, but the part we ordered still has not arrived.”
After remaining closed for more than a year, the Shell Station that once doubled as a Taco Bell franchise now has a new business model.
Where customers once sat and ate Mexican food, the space has been cleared of tables and chairs in preparation of the arrival of more gaming machines.
“We have six skill games, and more are ordered to fill the space,” Dixon noted.
As for the darkened Shell sign that no longer advertises the price of gasoline to passing motorists, Dixon lamented, “After our pumps were certified, we could sell gas, but the electronic control that allows for the changing of prices, was stuck at $1.89.”
The skill games that are at the center of his business are similar to Las Vegas slot machines, but they provide those playing with more options.
After opening in Feb. and discovering that the electronic Shell sign was stuck, Dixon placed the order, but with shipping delays caused by Covid-19, the vital part that allows him to advertise gasoline prices and change the prices as needed has yet to arrive.
Dixon remarked, “With all of the hurdles we’ve had to overcome, business has been fair.”
As for the skyrocketing price of gas that set an all-time record in March, Dixon, a descendant of Robert E. Lee via his mother, Margaret Lee Dixon, revealed, “Our price for regular gas is $4.09.”
After graduating from Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton in 1989, Dixon became an entrepreneur.
He concluded, “I anticipate that the price of gas will come down now that the price of a barrel of oil fell to under $100 per barrel today.”
With the recent closing of the Shell gas station adjacent to LewisGale Hospital Alleghany, motorists will have a choice to purchase gas from Shell in nearby Clifton Forge.