By Cal Abbo
On May 13, the Madison Heights City Council moved to reject the latest special approval proposal by Sheetz for a new 24-hour gas station, citing several reasons why it denied the request.
Among other items, the council noted that the plan proposed by Sheetz was inconsistent with the intent of the district as well as the city’s master development plan. The proposed gas station would also have environmental consequences and increase noise for the residents in the surrounding area.
Sheetz, a national chain of gas stations and convenience stores, announced plans earlier this year to open dozens of locations in metro Detroit. Headquartered in Pennsylvania, the company owns and operates more than 700 stores throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina. As of last year, according to a Forbes list, Sheetz is the 27th largest privately-owned company in the United States, posting $14 billion in revenue.
The chain is known mostly for its made-to-order convenience restaurant and its 24-hour service that is available at every single location. For this reason, it often needs special approval from the cities in which it plans to build.
“When we deny something, there are very specific reasons that we can deny,” said Madison Heights Mayor Roslyn Grafstein in an interview. “We need some kind of development there, and I would love to put in a restaurant or maybe a grocery store, but we don’t need another gas station.”
One of Grafstein’s biggest issues was the environmental damage this could cause. She pointed out that as electric cars become more available and popular, gas stations will become obsolete, and eventually they might want to build something else on that property. The cleanup required can cost millions of dollars.
According to Grafstein, people stretched wall to wall at the meeting. Most of them opposed the Sheetz proposal for one reason or another, although not everyone spoke. “I couldn’t even walk into the council chamber,” she said.
The fact that so many attended the meeting is due to the advocacy and action of several Chaldean store owners located in Madison Heights as well as Sharkey Haddad and the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce.
“Several gas station owners in the area reached out to me and asked for help stopping Sheetz from coming to Madison Heights,” said Sharkey Haddad, who works with the Chamber on special projects. “They explained to me that Sheetz, as a national chain, has more power and their business can suffer if it opens close to them.”
Before these small business owners came to Haddad, he was unaware of Sheetz’s plans to open so many stores in metro Detroit. The chain has already gotten approval in some cities on the outskirt suburbs of metro Detroit and is seeking many more.
To the initial store owners who came to him for help, Haddad advised that they begin canvassing the area, collecting signatures and distributing flyers to their customers. Clearly, they took Haddad’s instruction to heart and turned out a large crowd at the city council meeting a few weeks later.
“Over the past 30 years, I have noticed that big corporations like Walmart, Costco, or Sam’s Club come into a city and put a lot of mom-and-pop shops out of business,” Haddad said. “Because of their purchasing power and high traffic, the small guys always end up getting the short end of the stick.”
In a statement, Sheetz PR Manager Nick Ruffner said the company is disappointed by the decision in Madison Heights. “We always welcome the opportunity to share our story with the community and local officials,” the statement said. “We also appreciated the passion and enthusiasm displayed by the wider community, and we are looking forward to constructive dialogue on shared interests. We will continue our expansion with the goal of bringing our brand of fresh made-to-order food and 24/7 convenience to southeast Michigan.”
Allowing Sheetz to open a chain of stores in metro Detroit comes with several advantages and disadvantages. Economic winners and losers can be found throughout the Chaldean community, but owning and operating small convenience and grocery stories remains its bread and butter.
For Michigan in general, several effects would take place if Sheetz opened a large number of locations. Like Haddad noted, smaller stores would get less business, and with that, more profits would be taken out of the community by larger companies and spent elsewhere. In addition, customer service would suffer as employees paid minimum or low wages would run these stores instead of owner-operators who are much more motivated to satisfy their customers.
On the other hand, the area would experience dozens of new construction, bringing economic activity, and more options for food, gas, and convenience, which would increase competition and potentially lower prices on these items in general. In addition, opening this many stores will create thousands of jobs for Michiganders.
Only time will tell how many locations Sheetz can get up and running and which cities will allow the chain to operate its signature 24/7 model.
