Local Gas Station Relies on Customer Service to Get Through Hard Times

Russ Spring was working his way up the corporate ladder in the oil industry. He started as a store manger for Mobil Oil. Became became a district manager for Hass in Florida. He then took an area manger position with Sunoco, later moving to Murphy USA.

After he made the last move from Murphy USA to Kangaroo, however, the ladder was gone. As the economy began to tank, corporate decided to downsize. Spring no longer had a job.

“There I was, a 51-year-old guy out there with no job,” Spring said.

Taking the initiative, Russ and his wife, Liz Spring, wanted to operate their own gas station. They applied for loans, all of which were denied. The Small Business Administration would not loan the Spring’s money for a lease agreement, but would if they wanted to buy the property. The process for the Spring's was very disheartening, but they said giving up was not an option.

“We cashed in this and did that and we spent our entire life savings and opened up this store last year,” Russ said.

The station is a Sunoco, located at 5808 S. Tamiami Trl. If you are heading towards Stickney Point, you’ll notice a ‘Y’ in the road, that’s where the Spring’s store is.

The former owners of the store, Russ said, ran into the ground by not caring about the area customers. That is why Russ and his wife are building it back up with hard work and customer service., the Spring’s are hoping customer service is what makes the customers come back.

“We have gotten so close to our customers,” Liz said. “We have the best customers in the world.”

To better serve its current customers and to attract new ones, Russ said his family-owned gas station is doing something very rare nowadays. They have a full-service day. Russ and his son Tyler handle the full-service day. 

Every Tuesday if you pull up to the Spring's Sunoco from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. you can get your gas pumped, windows washed, oil checked or even have air put in your tires at no charge. He says it has really been noticed by the senior and handicapped communities who appreciate the gesture. But as they continue to do it, more and more people are taking notice. 

“We get out there every Tuesday, rain shine or heat,” Russ said. “The first couple weeks, I’d be walking up to men and they say ‘no get away from me’ or ‘no I got this’.

"Then people got used to it and were like ‘yeah, go ahead'," Russ said. "Overall, the response has been tremendous. That’s been a doubling [business] day."

While the first couple of months of any new business is a struggle, opening on April 15, 2010, the Spring’s had to deal with the BP oil spill that scared many tourists and gasoline buyers from coming to Sarasota.

"The entire time made us nervous," Russ said.

After weathering that storm and with season starting, the Spring’s started to get out of the red as the snowbirds came back to Sarasota.

“We built the sales back up,” Russ said. “Probably from the time we took it up until now, we are up 40-50 percent in sales. Nothing less then our hard effort and blood sweat and tears.”