PEMEX vs OXXO
Part 2 of 4.
José Angel Gutiérrez
joseangelgutierrezbooks.com
voiceofthemainland.blogspot.com/voces-index
From time to time, my family and I vacation in México. We have been to most of the country and stayed in its major cities. One of the most striking memories of these travels is the number of OXXO gas stations and convenience stores there are everywhere. It used to be that only the PEMEX stations were the only place to gas up and buy goodies. Not anymore. There are US franchises open in Mexico displaying the Chevron, Shell, Texaco, and Magnolia ( you don’t see many of those in the US now). Then, the OXXO stores began to spring up and they are ubiquitous. When we have traveled into Mexico to go to Los Cabos, both San Jose and San Lucas, our first stop at to Rosarito, Baja California and stay overnight, there is an OXXO right next door open 24/7. There is everything you want to buy besides gasoline there—aguacates, aqua, leche, huevos, pan dulce, chiles, tortillas, chips and booze of all kinds. My wife drinks lots and lots of bottled water so we stock up at OXXO most often. There are now some 27,200 OXXO stores in México with 670 of them also selling gasoline. They have begun to rival PEMEX which used to be the only gas station and convenience store in the country.
In the US, we used to stop for snacks and an occasional coffee at 7-11 convenience stores until I found out that while the franchise holder may be local, the parent company is a Japanese conglomerate that owns 57% of 7-11’s under the name of Seven & I Holdings. They also own Speedway, A-Plus, and for those of you in South Texas, Stripes. I used to love to buy the hand-made tacos en tortilla de harina at any of the Stripes in Brownsville, Texas. I try not to stop at Stripes or 7-11’s anymore and began frequenting Circle K. It was started in El Paso back in 1951 but since has been sold to Alimentation Couche-Tard, Inc. from Laval, Quebec, in Canada. World-wide, Circle K has over 16,000 stores, mostly in the US and they also sell gasoline and are a convenience store. It seems that everyone else in the world is making money off of us as consumers but us.
I began looking into who owns what since then. Then in 2017, I found the Texas connection with Israel. The State of Texas and several other states make it a crime to contract with anyone who boycotts Israel or energy or firearm companies. (Read Texas Government Code ch, 2274m cg 2276, and section 2251.001.) Once, while driving across West Texas I gassed up at an Alon station. I have found out that I should not have given my feelings for that the Jewish state is doing to people in Gaza. My other current reason is that the fellow who tightened the law more so in 2019 is Ken Paxton now running for US Senate from Texas.
Delek US Holdings, Inc and ALON, an Israeli Company, are the owners of those gas stations in the US under the logo DK and ALON. Delek is an energy company with stations mostly in Texas, New Mexico and Arkansas. Alon uses its 4-letter name as its logo. Back in October 2024 DK Holdings sold it chain of 249 gas station and convenience stores to a Mexican entity called FEMSA which stands for Fomento Economico Mexicano (FEMSA) for the sum of $385 million US dollars. The headquarters of FEMSA is in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, México. FEMSA owns OXXO which is a giant conglomerate with stores in 18 countries, now 19. It also owns the food retail company Valora that has stores in Europe. FEMSA also is the largest bottler of Coca-Cola products in the world.
The first store to open under the OXXO name in the US was in Odessa, Texas last year. Next will be OXXO gas stations and convenience stores in the states listed above that used to be DK and Alon gas stations and convenience stores. Look for the first OXXO store in your state and city. I bet another Hindu, Japanese, Jew, Quebequois might own the local franchise; certainly not one of us.
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