Unique gas stations are fewer, but still pumping

Its Weights and Measures division checks their pumps for accuracy, so it keeps the list.

The number of lines occupied by a name that isn't repeated in the list is gradually getting smaller. This year it's down to a couple dozen. That's how many local stations or stores aren't part of a chain or group.

The unique ones -- the ones you'd call a filling station, where they check your oil, tires, fill up your tank and wash your windshield -- are still around, but rare.

One is Norm's Car Care, 3940 A St., where Dennis Sell continues what his dad started on Labor Day weekend of 1958 east across 40th Street. Norm Sell moved the station a few years later to where Dennis runs things now with six full-time employees. 

Dennis started cleaning the restrooms when he was 7.

"Whether that was smart or not, I don't know," he said.

It's not so much fun as it used to be, he said. Not because he's still cleaning restrooms, but because the fun was in the mechanics.

"When I was wrenching and working in the shop more -- we are all mechanics -- we fixed things differently. We rebuilt starters and carburetors, alternators, wheel cylinders, calipers. Today, you just replace them with another part. It's always fun to tear something apart and make it work again. But, now, the cost to turn an alternator, it's just not cost-effective.

"It's still mechanics, but computerized. ... Now you have to have thousands and thousands of dollars in tools to do anything."

Four of Dennis Sell's full-timers are older than he is and have worked at Norm's for more than 30 years. Two others started when they were 16, and he's not ready to give up the camaraderie of those who love to have their head under a hood.

"Part of my deal is I've got a great group of guys working for me," Sell said. "It's kind of hard to walk away from that."

Lincoln businessman Marc Hausmann walked into the convenience store business with his eyes open when he bought Northstar Express, 5700 N. 33rd Circle, from a friend, hired a manager and then operated it himself. 

"It's a difficult trade," said Hausmann, who's in the real estate business, among others. "It's hard to compete with U-Stop and Casey's. It takes everything out of you. You're selling a thousand items to make a penny. ... I would never do it again."

So he leased Northstar Express to the Sultani brothers, operators of George's Gourmet restaurants at 14th and O, Clocktower and since May, in the same building as Northstar Express next to North Star High School.

When the high school kids are around, business is good, said George Sultani, who has a two-year lease.

"When they're not, it's slow. I'm going to see how it goes."

George's business strategy: "My gas is always cheaper than everybody's."

Then there's an entirely different kind of unique: Andy's Express, which opened last summer at 8511 S. 33rd St.

It's the brainchild of Mike Anderson of Anderson Auto Group. The only other gas station near all the auto dealers on the south side of town was a U-Stop that would get overwhelmed with traffic, according to manager Dennis Gosselin.

"It made it a big hassle," he said. "Mike had a piece of property and saw the need for another C-store on this side of town. Except he did not want a run-of-the-mill C-store. He wanted a very nice one. Upscale. Not in prices, but in the equipment we have, the presentation of the store.

"When they come in here, they're going to have the best convenience store experience we can offer," Gosselin said.

That includes the convenience of a drive-thru, where a person can buy anything in the store, except alcoholic beverages and lottery tickets. That's one of Mike Anderson's ideas, after a lot of research, Gosselin said.

"In Texas, they are a fairly common practice."

They also offer food above and beyond the typical C-store's moneymakers. Broasted chicken, local craft beers. Anderson was looking at what was available nearby.

"As far as chicken places go, it was minimal," Gosselin said. "We also have pizza, we do cheeseburgers, we have side dishes, we have quite a variety and we have tables inside. The chicken is absolutely awesome."

But wait. There's more.  Five flavors of coffee, five kinds of tea, 10 flavors of  cappuccino.

Next door to Anderson Mazda, Andy's has a car wash, is open from early in the morning to late at night and management sees room for the business to grow because of development happening around them.

"There are 100 and some odd units being built behind us," Gosselin said. "We set ourselves up for success."

And it's a gas station.

"We were among the first to break the $2 barrier," Gosselin said.