The fuel tanks at the Wilson Creek Shell gas station have been filled up one last time, and when they empty sometime next week, the station will close for major upgrades, with a planned reopening in mid-December.
But that’s not what the customers are talking about.
“I only drive down here because of Dave,” West Sechelt resident Mark Toynbee told Coast Reporter while filling up his truck. “I’m going to miss him.”
After 27 years operating the gas station, owner Dave Munro, who is approaching 60, will step away from the station after the last of the fuel drains from the tanks. Corporate Shell, which will be covering the renovations, will manage the station once it reopens.
Nearly every customer seems to know about his retirement by now.
“When does the fuel go on sale?” joked one customer. “I want that clearance sale!” Another customer tells Munro to embrace his freedom.
“Thank you, Dave,” is how each exchange typically ends, with Munro always thanking them back.
With no automatic pay option at the pump, hundreds of people walk through the gas station’s doors daily to pay in person.
“I kind of treated the station as my living room,” Munro told Coast Reporter, an attitude that’s lasted since he “reluctantly” got into the business of selling gas in the early nineties.
“Every time someone came in, I would be thrilled they were there, we would engage as best we could, and doing that many times over was very rewarding and uplifting for hopefully both them and myself.”
Munro and his wife used to run a bicycle shop. With close friends they jointly purchased a Shell gas station in Sechelt after moving to the Sunshine Coast from Richmond as a young family. “It was odd, but was in a way rewarding,” said Munro.
Working at such an active little retail spot, he said, “was a great way to start those lifelong connections that have grown and grown and grown over the years.”
Norm Blair, who’s known Munro since he took over the Sechelt station and who runs Sechelt’s food bank, said he isn’t surprised by the steady stream of thank yous passing through the station’s doors since news about Munro’s retirement started to spread.
While the gas station operator has supported organizations such as the Tetrahedron Outdoor Club, Chapman Creek Hatchery, Sechelt Hospital, and the Rotary Club, Munro also quietly supported individuals in need and with nowhere to turn.
“His store, it’s his own organization. You can look at it as a not-for-profit, even though it’s a business,” said Blair. “Anybody who’s knocked on his door, he doesn’t say no, but if he does he finds another way to help.”
Munro said he is retiring with a feeling of sadness but is also thrilled for his next chapter in life, which will involve staying active, spending more time on his property in West Sechelt, improving his woodworking, metalworking and cooking skills, enjoying time with family and friends, and maybe a little travel.
Friends encouraged him to retire after he decided against making the large investment required to upgrade the station, since it would take more than a decade to see a return.
About 20 months ago, the computer in the store that connected to the pumps outside broke down.
At that point, he knew a major investment was imminent. But rather than close the station, Munro appealed to humanity’s better nature, and has been running the station on the honour system ever since, relying on customers to tell him how much gas they pumped, without asking for a card, not even asking for trust.
“I [thought] the world of the community before the incident, before having to go on to the honour system, but as I’m closing, knowing that we can run a gas station on the Sunshine Coast on the honour system, and have it work, it’s something I would have never thought possible,” said Munro.
“It’s difficult to know how you say thank you to so many who supported the little station at Field Road and the highway.”
