The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Concerning buying aero oil: this is one time you might want to support your local FBO. Buying somewhere else is a hassle and saves only a few bucks. And he is not selling me much avgas, Im using car gas mostly

gahorn
injoyed your comment about 10 million year old oil!!
we don't have a local FBO.
i'll have to try an airport near me,
and see what kind of deal they'll make.
dave

N2255D wrote:I've looked in every Sam's I've been in in the last 2 years and never found any Aviation oil. That includes Sam's in Houston, San Antonio, and Austin when I spent weekends there. Even tried them on line. Got it at SkyGeek when they had their free shipping.

Same here. I think it speaks to the attitude towards GA around the country. Some regions are more receptive to it than others

N2255D wrote:I've looked in every Sam's I've been in in the last 2 years and never found any Aviation oil. That includes Sam's in Houston, San Antonio, and Austin when I spent weekends there. Even tried them on line. Got it at SkyGeek when they had their free shipping.

The Sams in Addison and the Sams here in Grand Prairie use to carry Areoshell. It's been several months since either one of the stores has stocked it. Addison Airport is very busy, and very close to the Sams store. Both the Grand Prairie and Arlington airports are close to the Sams store here in Grand Prairie. The price was in the low $20's for a case, and then started creeping up till finally it was around $30, which was within a $1 of what the local aircraft parts store, Tex-Air was selling a case for. Even though the airports provided the volume of sales, it might have been that the profit went out of it for Sams. Maybe with the price of oil coming down they will start stocking it again.

I have to admit that since Sams is part of the chinese importer, WalMart, I try to avoid buying from them because all it does is help them run the local family owned businesses out of business. (In some small towns tho', WM is all there is after they've killed all the locals.)

After I bought the last of the Aero Shell oil in the local Sams Club, I asked the manager why it was no longer stocked. He said it was too slow a mover. Same deal with the unbranded automotive oil I used to get there.
It was half the price of the branded stock but met the required API spec.
for my Ford Explorer. I'm going to have to look into "Cosco" to see what they have.
I've thought of checking with the Sams Club manager to see how much I would have to buy to have him special order it for me, and what kind of a price I could get. Maybe I gould get together a buyers group to save us all some money.
There's no regular FBO at my airport, and the self service av-fuel is run by the county.

I'm with you, Dick. Big-name motor oil is a great example of succesful marketing. It's hard to comprehend why some folks will pay $4.50 quart for Castrol/Super-Duper/Whatever-BigName-Brand when it's the same stuff inside the bottle as the $1.25 stuff meeting the same API standard stamped on the label.

Last month I bought Phillips 20/50 from Kath Lubricants in Saint Paul for under $30/case: http://www.kathfuel.com/html/lubricants.htm . They were dumping their stock because aviation oil doesn't sell in the winter the way it does in the summer. A little local knowledge may help you find deals like this.

John

Sams is part of the chinese importer, WalMart, I try to avoid buying from them because all it does is help them run the local family owned businesses out of business.

What's up with you today? I've noticed you always get this way around election time.
I remember when Walmart first came to Wasilla, Alaska. They stocked their shelves with Aeroshell 10W50 at the same price as Quaker State. $1.something. We wiped her out. They stocked again, whiped her out over and over. Finally they started a (reserve some quarts for me) form, which meant it never got on the shelf. This went on for a while. Eventually something happened, they got the price more in line or sent it all back to China.

Like Joe said, Sam's isn't carrying AeroShell 100 at the present time. Last 2 or so cases I bought ended up around $3.00 per qt with sales tax. Fortunately my supply has prevented me from having to be screwed by the oil companies since the pumped up the price of oil. I don't like to see Wal Mart crowding out the smaller, local merchants either, but it is a supply & demand economy so we will have to see how it turns out. I bet most folks will op for the $5 price at Wal Mart vs $7.50 at the local merchants place. Buying power just doesn't favor the little guy. I suppose the cost of oil is supply & demand also. Problem there is so much of the price of oil is political Will be interested to see what the fall elections will do to the price of oil and the economy in general. What is out of line is the price of Champion Oil Filters. I am paying $20.00 with tax for something that probably doesn't do any better job than the $5 one at Wal Mart, but its not legal to use them.