A trip to Cardie Oil in Tampa is a step back in time
Staff writer
A visit to Cardie Oil in Tampa is a step back in time to when gas stations truly were service stations.
Attendants not only fill your tank. They automatically wash your windshield, check your oil and tires if requested, process your credit card in the office, and bring you the receipt without your ever having to leave your car.
And the service doesn’t stop there.
“If I can’t open a jar or if I have problems with my lawn mower, I take it across the alley to them, and they are glad to help,” neighbor Jane Vajner said. “They don’t laugh at me, at least not to my face.”
All of which builds intense customer loyalty.
“I don’t shop around for gas,” Vajner said. “I want them to stay here.”
Adeline Bernhardt is another of Cardie Oil’s loyal customers.
“It’s very much an asset,” she said. “I’d feel terribly disappointed if we lost it.
“I have a lot of back problems. They know that, and they help me. I just give them my card.”
In addition to full service at the pump, longtime employees like Darren Makovec and Chris Stuchlik provide maintenance and tire service.
If just one person is on duty and is busy in the shop when a customer needs fuel, the attendant drops everything to come to the customer’s aid.
“We do a lot of walking back and forth,” Makovec said.
Although a new owner, Jim Cloutier, acquired the business a few years ago, the service remains the same as it was through two generations of the Mueller family.
“It’s always been that way here, and we’ve never changed it,” Makovec said.