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Disappointing Route

March 16, 2026 04:48PM
I had the most disappointing route on Saturday. I was excited to get 14 Marathons at $25 each. I threw a few Valero's in there and made myself a very nice profit...or so I thought. I only had to drive about 2 hours to get out there and it was a really nice day. Got to my first Marathon and saw they were being transitioned to Sinclair. I asked inside if all the Marathons were going to Sinclair and they said yep. So now my 14 jobs at $25 just got reduced to $5. I instantly went from making $350 on Marathons to $70. I'm not gonna lie my first thought was "screw it I'm not wasting my time for $5" but I decided since I was there and I was a professional I would go ahead and do them and just suck it up. I will say I was not in the best of moods on Saturday. My only hope is once they are Sinclair I can make a nice profit in the future because they pay better than Marathons.
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March 16, 2026 07:55PM
Yeesh, that's quite the switch up through no fault of your own.
I am not sure what kind of time commitment it is if it is a different chain. Is it one picture and you're done? If it was anything more than that, I think I would have abandoned the route.
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March 16, 2026 08:13PM
It really was one picture and just saying you could not complete the job. But it still hurt my greedy little heart a bit.
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March 16, 2026 09:29PM
And that's exactly why this "Reduced compensation" policy is BS.
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March 16, 2026 10:39PM
Oh, I hate that for you! After you subtract your gas, you only made $45.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.
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March 16, 2026 11:04PM
Luckily I was able to add in some that had gas reimbursement which was nice.
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March 17, 2026 02:01AM
That's really poor form on the MSC's part. They're carelessly wasting your time and effort. They need to be on top of stuff like that.

I don't think there are any Russians / And there ain't no Yanks
Just corporate criminals\ / Playin' with tanks
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March 17, 2026 03:50AM
That is awful. If they still had Marathon branding I would have tried to do them anyway.

Had a recent experience traveled 50 miles for two shops worth $45. They were both rebranded, with closed location fees totalling $12. My first thought, like you, was to just abandon the shops. But then I figured I might as well save someone else from the same fate, and reported them closed. I often wish all sorts of bad things on my competition, but I guess when it really matters I have a softer heart. Karma must have been in play, because they ended up giving me $20 instead of the $12.
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March 17, 2026 05:30AM
Sadly all Marathon signagexwas gone.
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March 17, 2026 10:34AM
@retrodaddy wrote:

That's really poor form on the MSC's part. They're carelessly wasting your time and effort. They need to be on top of stuff like that.

"Poor form" is their business model and wasting shoppers' time is their specialty.
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March 17, 2026 12:46PM
Yikes! That totally sucks, but kudos to you for taking the high road.

That minimal closed fee, along with no gas purchase, is why I typically avoid the few Marathons that are in my area.

I've run into a handful of Phillips 66 stations that were 7-11 branded, but those were 1/2-pay for the closed report.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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March 17, 2026 02:35PM
@retrodaddy wrote:

That's really poor form on the MSC's part. They're carelessly wasting your time and effort. They need to be on top of stuff like that.

Could not agree more.

It's particularly infuriating when I do repeat visits and find the information they paid me to provide previously has yet to be utilized.

At least the Phillips 66 program pays 50% for a closed shop, or at least they did the last time I grabbed a local wave.

Lots of them in my area are now 7-11 branded. I was happy to take them for some easy pay and no impact on my gas capacity.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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March 18, 2026 06:37PM
Good news. Yes my pay for the job was only $5 HOWEVER, it appears they did leave the bonus on. Not the best but each one ended up being $18 versus $25 but you know what I will take it.
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