Moose Country Chevron Celebrates 25th Anniversary
By Angela Altass
Moose Country Chevron in Whitecourt, Alberta is celebrating 25 years under the ownership of the Reuteman family but the story behind business at 3743 Caxton Street goes back many years before that.
“From what we are told by elder community members, this place has been here since 1964, starting out as a laundromat and carwash,” says Megan Reuteman, operations manager, Moose Country Chevron. “It is not clear to me when the gas station was added. It has undergone many additions and been through four owners. The Wilsons took over ownership around 1987 and continued operating it until 1999. They replaced the fuel tanks and dispensers, extended the pump room for the carwash and added the big truck wash bay. In 1999, my parents, Bev and Art Reuteman purchased Moose Country.”
In 2003, the Reutemans put in an underground diesel tank with turbine fuel dispenser and an automotive and bottle propane dispenser. In 2012, Megan and her sister Hayven officially took over management of the day-to-day operations and back office of the business while their parents maintained the responsibility for major financial decisions and larger scale bookkeeping duties.
“In 2015, we purchased Grannie Gray’s Hard Ice Cream,” says Megan. “The ice cream shack had been around Whitecourt for many years prior with different names before Grannie Gray’s daughter, Debbie Gray, purchased it and named it Grannie Gray’s Hard Ice Cream. Grannie Gray was Irma Gray, a well-known member of this community, volunteering and providing catering, as well as a family friend and long-time customer of Moose Country. Debbie ran the ice cream shack for a number of years until she sold it to Adam Hodge, who rented space on our property to get the highway traffic. We liked having it on our property as it brought people in so, when Adam wanted to sell it, the logical decision was to purchase it ourselves. Grannie Gray passed away last year and we continue to honour her name.”
A large exterior renovation project to the building and carwash was completed in 2016 and a new automatic carwash was put in during the year 2017.
“After 30+ years representing and selling Petro-Canada fuel at this site, our contract expired in December 2023 and we signed on with Chevron,” says Megan. “In January 2024, we switched over and opened as Chevron. In June of this year, we started and completed a large upgrade to our underground tanks, lines and fuel islands and dispensers. We removed four old underground tanks and replaced them with one large tank with three compartments. We replaced all the fuel lines and electrical for the tanks and pumps, no longer running suction dispensers. We replaced our three old dispensers and added one more for a total of four dispensers, all with the newest card processing technology and encryption. We upgraded our pumping capacity to have gas and diesel available at all pumps. We’ve quadrupled our diesel pumping capacity and doubled our gas pumping capacity. We digitalized the fuel inventory by installing Veeder Root and we improved our emergency response procedures.”
With all the renovations that have been completed at the site, Megan says she likes to tell people that the business is the oldest and newest gas station in Whitecourt. A 25-year celebration and grand re-opening event for the business on September 7 offered food and prizes and raised funds for the Whitecourt Cancer & Wellness Society.
Excellent customer service is important to Moose Country Chevron.
“I believe, over the 25 years, we have had some pretty amazing staff who are great at customer service,” says Megan. “That is what brings customers back. We have four employees out of eight who have been here for over 20 years or over eight years and we have some very loyal customers. I also think a lot of hard work, dedication, sacrifice, and promotion/network building is crucial to being successful. Being knowledgeable and knowing how everything works around here is very beneficial to operations and being able to understand your employee’s perspective. Happy employees mean happy customers.”
Moose Country Chevron offers fuel, propane, automatic carwash and pull through hand wash bays, and a convenience store that has fishing tackle, fishing and hunting licenses, live bait for fishing, some Alberta made products, and lottery.
“We are locally owned and operated,” states Megan, “and we are proud members of our community. We are open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. People can check out our Facebook page “www.facebook.com/moosecountrychevron” for more details and information on our growth in this community.”
