Hi guys, with the opportunity of Topaz re-branding to Circle K, let’s review the list of Gas station brands.
The list in this old thread doesn’t match what’s in the editor nowdays https://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=22392 so I have prepared a Google Spreadsheet with the brands currently in WME - feel free to make edits etc. Once we’re happy with the list, Waze HQ can publish it live in WME.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-GraOc-_f-lN_ZAZA4ApY8EUp0KBRu7d-bXct6G0i_g/edit?usp=sharing
I’m in two minds about Topaz and Circle K. Although I haven’t seen many petrol stations with Circle K branding yet, I presume all the Topaz stations are going to change eventually, so it would be handy if they could all be changed over in one go by Waze HQ rather than us having to manually change each one.
Maybe we should wait a month or so (or however long it takes for the majority of Topaz stations to change their branding) and then get all Topaz stations changed to Circle K in one go by HQ. Thoughts?
++David
Could be an option, but I’ve got a feeling it will be slow and dreadful like Esso 
As far as I remember, the last update has been done here.
Ah, we’ve gone a full circle :lol:
Anyway, it’s good to review and update the list from time to time… 
Thank you for doing it! 
I personally never saw the below - does anyone know if they’re still operating?
ENI
Excol
Xpress Stop
ENI is an Italian brand - not sure if they’ve ever operated here.
Excol still exists as a company (see here) and they’re based in Sligo. I don’t know whether they still run petrol stations under that brand though.
Xpress Stop rings a bell with me, but maybe they just operate convenience stores in petrol stations, rather than being a petrol brand. It’s possible they made it onto the brand list because some independent petrol stations were franchisees of Xpress Stop for the shop in the petrol station, and hence somebody thought that was also the petrol brand.
It might be worth getting a list of all petrol stations and assigned brands from Waze HQ - if any of these obscure brands don’t exist then we could consider removing these brands.
++David
HQ have that list of all places in the pipeline.
Meanwhile I’m thinking of trying this extension with an area of the whole country.
https://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=819&t=206376
About 30h later, the script has only scanned 11% of the whole island.
All to get a list of petrol stations? Hmmm.
It might be worth asking Tim if his crawler bot can be extended for petrol stations while it’s working - it does plenty of other stuff already.
++David
It’s scanning for all places and even though it works pretty fast for areas like greater Dublin, it was excruciating slow for the whole island.
I’ll reach out to Tim.
From the full list of places:
I think we are safe to remove these 3 brands from the list, what are your thoughts?
Well, ENI can definitely go. For the Gala Xpress in Monasterevin: that’s listed on the Gala Store Locator, and my understanding is that it’s a convenience store brand, not a petrol brand, so that can go too.
As for Excol: it looks like Excol went out of business in 2016, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t revived or that nobody bought the brand name. That particular station is mentioned here as having closed around the same time. I can’t find any other evidence of that brand since 2016, so although I’m not certain that they’re gone completely, my inclination is to remove them from the list.
HOWEVER, I do know they’re Sligo based, and that Arthur has connections with Sligo, so it might be worth asking him first.
++David
Thanks for digging around David.
I found this list below. If you zoom in google maps some are gone, and some are renamed, some are just MACE. Thought giving them a ring will probably be quicker so I’ll keep yous posted when I get around to it.
http://www.pumps.ie/findStationsBySearch.php?search=Excol
Ok, so from the 8 in the list we have:
2: Top/Spar
1: Independent
2: phone number not in use
1: no phone, doesn’t exist on Google Maps
1: wrong number
1: no answer
My conclusion is that there are no Excol petrol stations any more.
I’ve updated the spreadsheet if you want to take another look before I send it off to HQ. One thing I do need help deciding is Top. Which is trading as “top oil” (all lower case on their logo) - shall we normalise it to Top Oil?
I would go for “Top Oil”
Thanks again for the update.
Wow, you tried to contact all of the Excol ones? Pretty good!
As for “Top”/“top oil”/“Top Oil”, I’d be inclined to leave that as “Top” (no “oil”/“Oil”), both because it looks the most tight, because “oil” doesn’t appear on their logo. I know the logo is all lower-case now, but that could change if/when they ever change the logo (I vaguely remember it being “Top” years ago, before the current logo)
++David
I did yeah, easier than waiting for contacts to contact and have 50 Circle K pending by the time we hear back 
The oil part is in their logo actually - I think it sneaked-in with a recent re-design along with the color stripes. Take a look https://www.top.ie/
