A little old lady pulled into a Shamrock station Thursday and asked if someone could please put license plates on her car. Mark Copeland, 51, owner of the station at South Colorado Boulevard and East Arkansas Avenue, obliged.
“If you need your tires checked, or if you have a question about your car, or if you need directions, we can help you,” Copeland said. “Down the street, they are not going to do that.”
On a six-lane thoroughfare overrun with corporate-owned, self-serve pump-and-gos, Copeland still offers full service with bright blue eyes and a big, toothy smile.
He has service bays where mechanics actually work on cars. He has air hoses that don’t require quarters. And if you ever get a flat, he will patch your tire on the spot.
His father started this family business in 1967 in the Denver Tech Center. Five years ago, Cope land lost his lease and moved here. His 25-year-old son, Kacey, works at his side.
On Thursday, the price on Cope land’s self-serve pumps was $3.899, the same as the nearby Conoco and Shell stations.
“We still have to compete with corporate America,” Copeland said.
Usually, it’s the elderly who opt for the full-service pump. And even though it’s 80 cents a gallon more, some are glad to pay it.
Anyone who will pump your gas, check your oil or replenish your washer fluid belongs to a breed that has been nearly extinct since the late 1970s.
On Thursday, two dozen sign-wielding protesters, organized by the AFL-CIO, marched up and down the sidewalk in front of Copeland’s station.
“We’re all here to send a message to President Bush, Sen. John McCain and the Big Oil donors,” declared Mike Cerbo, executive director for the labor group in Colorado. “It’s time for a new direction. Working families have had it.
“The oil companies, the wealthy, they get their tax breaks,” he said. “We don’t get ours. . . . Where’s the cheap gas they promised when they went into Iraq?”
Protesters waved their “Bush and McCain (heart) Big Oil” signs.
TV cameras rolled. And radio- station mikes captured honks from sympathizing motorists.
Why did you pick this station for your protest? I asked Cerbo.
“We just wanted to find a gas station with high gas prices. That was real hard,” he said. “Whoever thought we’d feel relieved that it’s not four bucks? It’s only $3.899.”
How can working people get to work at prices like this?
“If things keep going the way they are going, people aren’t going to be driving to work,” Cerbo said.
I can only guess that whoever scouted the location for this protest liked the long public sidewalk fronting busy Colorado Boulevard. I bet they liked the large hotel parking lot surrounding Cope land’s station, too. Where else would the protesters have parked all their cars?
“I’m an independent businessman,” Copeland said. “Why aren’t they down the street at Conoco or Shell? I’m not corporate America. Why are they in front of my place, trying to hurt my business?”
Al Lewis: alewis@denverpost.com
