FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26 , 2021
JENKSTRIBUNE.COM
REMEMBERING THE ‘SHARP TEXACO’
Mark, Mike Sharp Reflect On History Of Their Gas Station As It Is Torn Down “There were several convenient store brands that were starting to take over the oil market at the time,” Mike said. “Get n Go, 7-Eleven and Quik Trip were starting to take control, so in order to compete, we either had to close down or upgrade, so we decided to expand it and add the free car wash with a fill-up. We had to adapt or die, so we adapted.” After several years of being unbranded, a representative from APCO Oil approached the Sharp brothers about branding it APCO Self-Serve. The brothers agreed to it and the new gas station had its first brand. Several years down the road, Total Petroleum, out of Paris, France, purchased APCO and the station was then run under the Total Petroleum brand. Another couple of years went by and a representative from Getty Oil came to Mark and Mike and the decision was made to transition to the Getty brand. Texaco then purchased Getty Oil and the final brand transition was made from Getty Self-Serve to Texaco. Jenks resident, Penny Hatten, was the store manager for the Sharps for nearly two decades and they would hire Jenks High School students in the DECA program to work at the store in the evenings. By Kyle Salomon Since September of 1978, west Main Street in Jenks has been home to a historic landmark known to many from the community as the “Sharp Texaco”. On Monday, the old gas station was torn down after the property was purchased from the Sharps by Red Dog Construction for commercial development. Even though the old gas station and convenient store was known as the “Sharp Texaco”, it went through several brands before Texaco took over. As they graduated from college, brothers Mark and Mike Sharp were trying to figure out what to do with their lives. They came back to Jenks and saw an opportunity on the west side of town. In the late 1970’s in Jenks, there was one gas station on the east side of the city near the Arkansas River. The Sharp brothers came up with the idea to open another self-serve gas station on west Main Street on property owned by their father, Robert Sharp. Once they had approval from their father, Mark and Mike designed the new gas station and began building it early in 1978 and it was officially opened in September of that year. The first name of the new gas station was “West Main SelfService”. “We were both getting out of college and self-serve gas stations were becoming more popular,” Mark said. “The gas station on the east part of town was always packed with cars, so we came up with the idea to open one on the opposite side of town. Once we designed it, we got in touch with different gasoline reps and then built it.” When “West Main Self-Service” first opened, it was 20x20 square feet and only served gas and oil. About a decade down the road, the Sharp brothers decided to make the transition to becoming a convenient store as well. They added 30 square feet to the original store to make it 20x50 in size. They also added a car wash to the property.
Mark said people loved Hatten and would come into the store just to see her from time to time. Mike said he would joke with the beloved manager that the day she decided to move on and not manage the store anymore would be the day they would close their doors. That day came when Hatten informed the Sharps she would not be working at the store at the end of 2003 because she wanted to spend more time with her husband, who had just retired. Hatten leaving, combined with Texaco moving out of the Tulsa market, forced the Sharps to make a tough decision. “Shell came in and wanted us to spend a large amount of money to upgrade to their images and we decided it wasn’t worth it and closed it down on Dec. 31, 2003,” Mark said. “A lot of people bought their gas with us. You either bought your gas at the west end of town or the east end of town.” After they shut the gas station and convenience store down in 2003, they moved their “Sharp Companies” offices into the building and have been in that location since until they moved out several weeks ago. Both Mark and Mike said they gained a lot of good experience in their time owning the popular gas station. “We learned a lot,” they said. “We had to learn how to deal with the public and no matter what, they customer was always right. We definitely learned a lot about business and about managing people. We had a good run.” FUN FACT When the Sharp brothers were deciding on the type of gasoline dispensaries to purchase for their new gas station, they made the decision to purchase dispensaries that only charged for gasoline under $1 per gallon because they never thought the price of gasoline would go above $1 per gallon. Several years later, they had to upgrade to new dispensaries.