Priming the Pump at King's Gas Station in Trenton

For Jeff King, selling gasoline is in his blood.

The proprietor of the Mobil gas station located at West and Fort said that he has been involved in the business since he was a young kid, when his father operated one.

“My father had opened a station in Detroit back in 1952,” said King. “When we moved to Trenton in 1984, we opened our original location across the street.”

In 1989, Mobil bought the competing station and rebranded it, leaving King to compete against another Mobil for six months, until the company asked him if he wanted to take over. That former competitor is now the current home of his Mobil station, where it has been a Trenton mainstay for over 21 years.

To King, there have been three tenets to a successful station that he has followed through his life.

“Customer service, cleanliness, and a good brand name,” he explained.

He acknowledges, however, that with high gas prices that “no station is pumping what it used to,” and that customer loyalty to particular gas stations is not what it used to be either.

“This guy bought a station on Vreeland and asked me how to get his station going, and I told him that he had to clean the place up, get a good staff, and get a good brand and he’d be okay,” said King. “He said that customers only cared about the price of gas, and it turned out he was right.”

In the height of the real estate boom in 2004, Mobil approached King about selling him the station outright as they moved to get out of the station business entirely. With his choice being either buying or letting the store close, King ate the nearly $1 million that Mobil wanted for the property, and as a result, he said, everything he sells has to support the store.

Though it is commonly believed that a store is supposed to sell gas cheap and make up the difference on items sold in the store, King explained, he has to make money on his gasoline as well. He said he plans on looking into other suppliers for gasoline once his contract with Mobil is up in a few years, but that he will not allow the quality of his gas to suffer for price.

“If you could only taste or see it, people would be more conscious of differences, but you can’t do that with gasoline,” he said. “Your car can taste the difference, though.”

Nevertheless, King said that they are very fortunate to have a lot of customers that are loyal to their station, and he does his best to give back to the community, volunteering his time and money to supporting the schools, “almost every baseball and hockey team in town,” and the . King is also on the nonprofit Metro Shores Credit Union Board of Directors, a volunteer position.

“I was raised to do everything on the up and up,” explained King. “You’re supposed to go to work, pay your taxes, and help out your community.”

Unlike other stations, he said, their staff is not paid under the table, and everyone is a Trenton resident. He also blasted some of the shadier practices he said other stations use, such as using switches that lessen gas flow to get more money out of customers.

Their business has also started using new technology to advertise, and King’s wife Tracy operates a facebook page that lists specials and information for customers.

“It’s been quite an adventure seeing how things have changed over the years,” said King. “I’ve been here at this location for 21 years, and hopefully I’ll still be here for another 21.”