I'm a commercial real estate appraiser and I had an assigment recently to appraise a gas station. What I learned from that is very interesting. It turns out that gas is distributed regionally, and in my region (new england) there are only 2-3 major depots where the gas is distributed from. All of the stations get their gas from these depots, every brand station from the no-name cheapos to the top tier brands. In fact, all of the gas is EXACTLY THE SAME. The difference is the additives (detergents, etc) which are mixed and blended when the trucks pull up to fill up. Shell has their formula, Exxon, theirs, etc. The gas is actually "formulated" right then, just as the tanker is filling. Cheaper no name stations will use generic formulas with minimal additives while the top tier stations use their own proprietary formulas, but the GAS is all the SAME, it all comes from the same tanks at the distribution center. There is no brand difference in the GAS, just in the ADDITIVES...