Valero Service Station

Some of the cheapest gas you can get in Palo Alto, usually about 20 to 30 cents/​gal cheaper than the stations found on El Camino Real (including the Valero next to the Jamba Juice). Arco is usually a few cents cheaper, but I’m fine with spending a little extra for the convenience of using my credit card. I take the fuel is pretty clean, since I’ve been fueling my car up primarily at this Valero for the past 35,000 miles, and never had any fuel system problems.
Randomly gets busy, even at 11pm at night. The pumps don’t seem to be super reliable — I regularly fill my car up here every 3 days or so and it seems like every other time, one or two of the pumps are down.
They have a little outside snack area in the center island to satisfy your thirst or cravings for chips. The attendants are usually pretty rude and will snap at you for no reason if you have a problem, but it’s a gas station — not the retail industry.

Gas is gas — but if you have any reason to talk to the employee on duty, you are likely to be spoken to, or even yelled at, very rudely — and for no apparent reason. (Sadly, the people at the Arco station across the street aren’t much better.) Cultural/​language differences, yeah, but why the sullen, sour, antagonistic attitude? I really miss the days when the gas station next to the Winter Lodge was owned (and staffed) by friendly, helpful people.

There are usually some cheap prices on drinks here when you do their 2 for _​_​_​deals. But they don’t even put a penny worth of soap in the buckets for the squeegees. How cheap can you get?
One of the less expensive gas stations in the area, but usually 3 – 5 cents more a gallon than the Arco across the street.

I feel a tad silly giving 5 stars to a gas station, but honestly, this might be the best one on the westsiiide of the Bay Area.
Seriously, this Valero has maintained the lowest price (or within a nickel of it) in a 10-​mile radius pretty much every day for the past 16 years (Valero took over all Bay Area Exxons back in 1999). The only brands that go lower are Arco and Costco, but Arco’s a bitch for not taking credit cards, and Costco’s lines piss away too much of your time.
I used to wonder about Valero quality since the brand was never part of the «Top Tier Gas» club like Shell, Chevron, and 76. But as of 2014, Valero officially joined the list (as did Arco). Sooo if everything’s basically equal (I haven’t noticed an MPG difference), why bother paying extra for the other stuff?
Well ok, if prices were even, I’d rather buy Chevron, just for the fun of supporting Evil Bay Area Oil over Evil Texas Oil. But on most days it’s not even close.
Extra credit to this station for staying open 24 hours, maintaining their pumps pretty well, and carrying diesel.

Its a gas station. What do you expect? Swipe your card, and begin the gas tank filling process. I did stop to get a soda and bag of chips. Easy peasy fast process.

i was there early moring very clean preety big station lot of parking spaces cheapest price i found in that area

This gas station consistently has some of the lowest prices around (with the exception, of course, of cash-​only places)… The pumps are slow, but it’s pretty easy to get in and out of this place so it’s never a very long stop.

True this location is super crowded at times, but its one of the cheapest places around as others have mentioned.

I don’t think the pumps are properly calibrated at this station. When I stopped by this week, I intentionally put in just one gallon to see if we’re being short changed. I stopped pumping when the price reached the cost for one gallon, but the meter showed it was only 0.999 gallons. Now, you might think this is negligible, but considering the amount of traffic that goes through this station each day, and the volume of gas it sells over the course of the year, the math can add up quick. With the cost of gas these days, I hope there’s better enforcement to keep stations honest.

Poor customer service. We asked attendant to check if pump was working and attendant sprayed gas on floor to «prove» pump was dispensing correctly. That just didn’t seem like the best test.

Ummm, decent service station with relatively low prices for the area. What can I say, the gas comes out when you pull the handle.

The manager and staff are not helpful and just plain rude. They wouldn’t take my Valero Fuel Card nor would they give me a blank one to transfer funds. After calling Valero HQ, they called the manager within a couple minutes only for him to hang up on her. Even though it’s the closest gas station to my house, I refuse to go there and will be more than happy to drive out of my way to another gas station. Long story, but it seems that they suspect everyone of being a thief. Now, I’m left with 2 Valero fuel cards worth over $ 100 and unable to find a location with an employee who is not lazy to enter numbers manually. Good luck.

4 stars to yay! I’m a fan…
especially since price for unleaded regular is $ 3.59 per gallon at this time.

True story — I stopped there tonight to get some cigarettes. He wouldn’t sell to me because I had a North Dakota license, and they do not accept «international» ids, despite my repeated attempts to explain that ND in fact was a state of the United States of America. This was after I patiently waited 5 min while he finished up whatever he was doing in his booth. Plus, I’m 30 and I don’t think I could pass for 17.

Quick and convenient and reasonable pricing

I came here a year ago or so older Asian man and his young son.
The only problem i had was that I bought a pack of cigarettes and a gallon of gas gave them cash (the young boy was working the counter at the time) he gave me my change i walked out of the shop. On my way to the car i noticed he shorted me a dollar. Now that’s not really a big deal but I was short on cash so i came back and said you shorted me a dollar still holding the change in my hands. The older man was now standing by the boy behind the counter. The boy said to me «i gave you the right change», I said «no you didn’t.» the man now interjected and said to me that i needed to have counted the change before i walked out of the store and refused to give me my dollar. Now at this point I’m mad not because of the dollar but because basically this guy called me a liar to my face and over a dollar at that. like I’m so poor that I’m going to lie to this guy over a dollar. so i swore to give this place a bad review and forgot about it. then recently i had to stop there because i had no gas and it’s the closest gas station to my work and the same guy was running the place. so now that i know about this website here it is.

So
lieth not – this is probably one of the cheaper gas stations in the area, if not the cheapest, IF (and only IF) you use that transactional tool called cash. Sorry debit/​credit users, you don’t get the lowest prices. I think I’ll stick to my Rotten Robbie station just down the road from my place, where they don’t play pricing games and the signage price is what you get.

CO to CA move BLOG, Day 3 Entry 1
Captains Log: Star Date 8÷29÷08. The voyages of Starship Penske 27′, also know as ‘Loud Bitch’ docks, from its final mission.
The adventure ends. Its another one for the memories.
2.5 days ago I boarded a plane in San Jose, landed in Denver, and arrived back in Menlo Park in a 27 foot rig, with my stuff, stored now for 2 years.
Getting a good nights rest was smart it turns out. I back the behemoth into the yard… I am feeling the effects of last few days of loading, driving, and minimal sleep, looking forward to 3 guys coming to unload.
60 mins after their expected onsite time, I make a call. The guy whom I found on Craigslist and claims many accolades and references, including a KNTV news 11 highlight, has vanished. By sheer blind luck, I have the # of one of his guys in my call log. I call him and he says Scott is no where to be found. I beg him to come over solo, and we begin unloading. I hadn’t planned on being 50% of the labor, but dig deep for a last adrenalin surge and start humping boxes and furniture. (note to self, you still have way too much shit.)
We finish 3.5 hours later. The guy asks for a pittance, I give him 50% more for saving my ass. I saved half at least of what it would have been. The guy is a motivated handyman too, and I make arrangements to have him come back and do some items I don’t want or won’t have time to tackle.
The place is my smallest house yet, but its cute. And I had to battle 50 applicants who wanted it, and came out on top, so its a victory all around.
Flash scored charm points on his interview.
Ok, back to Valero — +1 star for having diesal and being 1 block from my truck drop off. The credit card max is $ 100, so I have to use two cards for my $ 160 ‘top-​off’ but it’s convenient. Getting out was a bit of a beatch… I debate using my insurance and bashing through 5 cars… but I keep my inner demon still, behave, and don’t play Dukes of Hazard.
This concludes my Saga: its been… an adventure. One more semi-​blurred memory, that while its an experience I won’t forget, one I am glad is over.
Those friends, family and Unilocalers that tagged along, I hope you had a few chuckles along the way.
cheers!
William (and Flash)

It’s easy to get to but often difficult to leave this gas station. This is often the least expensive Valero in town

True, this one is crowded but pretty good sized, you don’t want to go right after work. The reason why, it is so convenient to hop in when you exit Hwy 101 and before heading home to Los Altos, Palo Alto or down El Camino Real. It is a pain to hit this station on the way to Hwy 101 since it is hard to get back on the road.
It is the cheapest gas in the area though. And takes your ATM and not charge a service fee like ARCO across the street.