'People are struggling and we see it every day': Bay St. George gas station owner offering all customers discounted gas
Dave Callahan owns the independent gas station in St. George's on the province's west coast. - Contributed
BAY ST. GEORGE, N.L. — Dave Callahan knows the cost-of-living crisis intimately; he’s one of the hardest hit, he says, which is why he wanted to give back.
Callahan owns a small business in the Bay St. George area, a gas station attached to a small grocery store. The business has been a small, independent, family-run business for almost 70 years.
Callahan started offering all his customers two cents off per litre of gasoline at the pumps.
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The offer is open to every customer and complements another program run at the store, a raffle program. When customers make a $20 purchase for gas or any item, their name is entered for a weekly $50 draw that can be used for gas or groceries.
“We started that program during COVID and it was our way of giving somebody something a little more to look forward to than just the constant raising in the price of fuel," he says.
Dave Callahan owns the independent gas station in St. George's on the province's west coast. - Contributed
"You could get a little something extra.”
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Callahan runs that program as a loyalty program, a way to thank customers for supporting an independent business. Typical loyalty programs, he points out, are usually out of reach for small independent business owners.
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He says he started offering two cents off a litre when he wanted to start doing something and not just talk about the problem.
“Instead of just talking about the problem, we would try to lead the way," he explains.
"With showing that even if people at the end of the switching can give a little, I'm pretty sure that the government and the oil companies could too.”
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Callahan says there aren't many independently owned gas stations around anymore. The bigger players have the ability to drop prices, he points out, but they prefer not to.
“I think, probably, with most of the other companies they could be, but most of them are the big guys that are corporate-owned. Oil companies don't really compete anymore,” he says.
“Just the fact that they don't even operate as many independent wholesale situations as they used to. One time, there was always about four or five different fuel tank systems across the island. Most of them are gone and integrated and they share the services of sharing in the hauling of fuels and everything.”
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Callahan says corporate gas stations don’t have the same flexibility or competition as independent gas stations.
“I guess they're following the industry corporate line and it's been a bit of a trend up, up, up, never down, justifying new reasons for new expenses. But at the same time, we literally reached a breaking point between government taxes and the corporate greed-flation, I'll call it,” Callahan says.
“We have seen basically now that we've hit most people's break point for what I would call the common everyday Newfoundlander.”
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Callahan knows the impacts personally. As a small business owner, he’s felt the pinch himself.
“I think small to medium-sized businesses are probably impacted as much or more than just about any sector of society. Literally, there's not much out there for us other than to either suck up these increases in business that you see in the cost of doing business,” he says.
“Then you got to try and download that to you to your customers. Every time that we have to raise the price on something, I should have a swear jar. I'd have a few of those filled up right now.”
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Callahan sees people struggling to keep their heads above water every day.
“The price of food and the price of gas. Just those two items alone, never mind throwing in the cost of home heating,” he says.
“Every other facet of our lives that has seen these huge increases over the past three years. Most people's incomes have not responded."
Callahan says governments have lost touch with average residents. He wants to see government advocating for what’s best for people.
"The government is out of touch," he says. "They should be regulating these fuel companies into compliance where everybody is not operating as a huge profitable cash cow.”
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He says that issue is present in the oil and gas industry as well.
“The big thing is that's where government also fails because this type of thing is supposed to be regulated. The regulations are only working for the big companies, they're not working for the common Joe. I could tell you that,” he says.
“It’s the case of everybody else towing the big guy’s line, whatever they say goes."
He can’t do much about the big issues, but he’s doing his part. Callahan says everything goes back to thanking his customers.
“Without (customers), this would not be here. It would not be a business. Your business is all about the people that honour you and come to patronize you,” he says.
He hopes to continue the offer for as long as possible.
“Small guys like me don't make a big lot of money off of gas. We try to make our living other ways. We're into everything, from local snow clearing, sand and salting. It's a small group of us and we try to maintain enough to keep us all working,” he says.
“As long as I can, I'm going to maintain this for my customers. It's the little bit that we can do and that we want to do. People are struggling and we see it every day. When people come through the door and they're counting their money before they're looking at what they can take off the shelf. People are hurting.”
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Callahan says the cost of living in rural Newfoundland has been on the rise, and paycheques aren’t keeping up.
“I would have to say in these hard times, which aren't going away any time soon, if you have a little extra, help look out to a senior or a single mom. Because they're struggling very hard and it doesn't seem to be too much that has actually made its way forward to help them,” Callahan says.
“Don't wait until there's some kind of a drive on or whatever the case may be. Go out and see what you can do every day to help make people's lives a little better.”
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Sanuda Ranawake is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering Indigenous and rural issues.
Sanuda Ranawake, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Telegram
