Flying J, Pilot formally announce preliminary merger agreement

Is it the TV hook up...or the fact you guys can't idle

Or the parking thats easy to get out of?

 

It costs $15-$20 a night and The TV hookup is nice but not having to listen to all of the trucks running is nice as well. It saves wear and tear on my truck too not running it all the time. I am also guilty of parking there putting it in the window and not turning it on when the weather permits so I can sleep in peace without all the noise.

 

I used to work for the good ole J as a restaurant manager for bout 5 years. I gotta tell ya, most of the j's restaurants didn't make money they actually lost money. This is 100% true. We were graded on how much money we didn't lose instead of profit. The c-store profit would cover our losses ofcourse, but you get the picture.

What hurt the J is when Jay Call died in a plane accident. (He loved to fly planes, hence the name Flying J). When the company got turned over to his kids, in my opinion it started going downhill.

Jay Call would never compromise. He took a stand against com data, took a big risk. Com data would raise and still does raise their fees and Mr. Call decided enough was enough and had a legal battle with them, and eventually booted them out. If you notice, the J owns or did own anyway all of their own stuff, like restaurants, insurance, bank, etc etc. That was his business model.

I hate to see the company finally come to a bitter end. I think some things will get better, let's face it, the coffee does suck at the hook lol. But that's about it. Pilot sure as heck isn't gonna lower any prices there. I tell ya something that has bothered me for a while. And that's charging 3 dollars for a gallon of water. I mean come on. Or 2 dollars for a dang coffee cake. Most truckstops need to stop doing that kind of overcharging. They are big enough to get this stuff in bulk and bring down the charges. I know, I used to order product from Mclanes and Sysco, I know how much it really costs.

Oh well, pretty soon it will just be a TA or a Pilot that you can go to. Sad. Can anyone say, monopoly?

 

Hopefully the hook will take my fuel card now. I've only got one hundred gallons to work with due to my second tank being a hydrolic pump and I can only fuel at pilot or loves and there just aint that many in CA. I've had times where i've put on 95 gallons of fuel in my hundred gallon tank because my fuel stops are so far and few between. It sucks to loose competition and hopefully pilot will become more service oriented but I need some #### diesel.

 

Actually, I like the J's buffet. I don't like the food offerings at Pilot. So, let me see, Petro (which was a private family run business) sold out to TA which is a corporate run business. Flying J which got into trouble with it's fuel situation is being bought out by Pilot. So, now it seems that there are only two companies out there that run truck stops. Hmmm, what's wrong with this picture?

 

Nobody is getting off the big road long enough to find the hundreds of small truck stops hidden a mile or two away. I found a nice one in Newton, KS today, off 135. Got me a set of straps for $15 each. Screw Pilot and their $25 for the same thing.

 

Good point about observing that person who came out of the bathroom stall, did not wash their hands and went straight to the buffet line to fondle three buiscuts before taking a fourth.

I sometimes see signs in the bathroom that says employees must wash their hands after visiting the bathroom. I thought that there should be signs that says EVERYONE ... Employees, Customers, ANYONE must wash their hands after going to the bathroom.

Here's something else I saw, at the Great American Steak and Buffet in Alexandria, Virginia this past Sunday (7-19-2009); just after lunchtime, a guy was standing in line for the onion rings, ribs and turkey in front of me.

He picks up the tongs. Lays some onion rings down on the plate and then when he is waiting in line for something else, he reaches down to nibble on an onion ring. He sucks on his fingers and then reaches for a second pair of tongs to pick up some ribs.

Well, that's the whole reason why tongs are on the serving line to prevent him getting his spit on my food and hence diseases. But when he licks his fingers and then picks up the second pair of tongs, that's not healthy. Also, that negates the whole reason for tongs being there in the first place.

So, I got my food right behind him but before I started to eat, I went back to the bathroom and washed up like a doctor before surgery.

 

Yup. I emptied the shelf.