Carl Brown has noticed a big drop in the number of people buying gas and convenience-store merchandise at BP of Forsyth County since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico began in April.
As the owner and operator of the station, which is on South Hawthorne in Winston-Salem, he estimated that his business has dropped 50 percent from this time a year ago because of a combination of the oil spill and the down economy.
He said that most people do not understand that he is an independent operator.
"People assume that when they see the BP sign that's what's causing the problem," he said. "They don't look at BP Oil. They look at the BP they're dealing with."
Gary Harris, the executive director of the N.C. Petroleum & Convenience Marketers Association, agreed.
In North Carolina, Harris said, there are fewer than 12 gas stations or convenient stores that are owned by the major oil companies. Most are locally owned.
"When you don't purchase from a BP station in your local area, you're really hurting a small-business owner in that area more than you are BP because that's how they make their living there in your community," Harris said. "They signed a contract and sell BP products and are branded BP."
BP owns fewer than 2 percent of the 10,000 stations across the country that carry its brand, but that did not spare independent station owners from boycotts, protests, vandalism and customer tirades about fouled beaches and oiled wildlife during the months that crude flowed into the Gulf of Mexico.
On June 12, a small group of protestors held up picket signs at the BP gas station at Peters Creek Parkway and Academy Street in Winston-Salem.
At the time, owner Salim Andraos said that people should support and protect nature, but he believed that the group was protesting BP and him, a local guy and franchisee.
William D. Clarke, who organized the protest, said that they never boycotted or were against the station, its employees or BP.
He said they simply were trying to bring attention to the oil spill.
"I continue to shop there, and I know everyone of the employees by name and they know me," Clarke said.
Now, the group is trying to make people aware that although the well has been plugged, there is still cleanup to be done, he said.
"It's not over," Clarke said. "A lot of times Americans tend to forget real quick and move on."
Instead of protesting these days at stations, the group is using other methods to get its word out, including an e-mail campaign and through social-networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Sales remain down at BP stations nationwide. The degrees of loss vary widely, with a few station owners still experiencing severe declines in business and others feeling little or no effect.
Tom Kloza, a chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, said that sales for major BP distributors and retailers tumbled 10 percent to 30 percent early in the crisis, depending on store locations. That has leveled out to an average decline of about 5 percent across the board -- a significant drop, but hardly a fatal blow.
Four Brothers convenience stores operated by Beroth Oil Co., based in Winston-Salem, experienced minute effects from the oil spill, said Winfield Beroth, the president of Beroth Oil.
Lee Barnes, the president of Family Fare Convenience Stores, said that sales at Family Fares in Winston-Salem that fly the BP flag did decline marginally for about 10 weeks this summer.
A couple of regular customers continued to buy food and other items in these stores but told Family Fare employees that they would not buy gas from their stores as long as the BP well was not capped.
Barnes said that those customers are back, and fuel sales are now back to normal and growing at all its stores that carry the BP brand.
"We are grateful for the support we've had in Winston-Salem," Barnes said.
fdaniel@wsjournal.com
727-7366
The New York Times contributed to this story.
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