(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – The owners of a full-service gas station in Morgan Park have sold their longtime pitstop, but the business is expected to remain unchanged.
After 73 years at the corner of 111th and Talman, the Kean family decided to sell the station that bears their name.
While customers have to fill their own tanks at most gas stations, 81-year-old Raleigh Kean said workers at his station would do that task, as well as clean windshields, check the oil and put air in tires.
It was a way to compete with nearby suburban stations, which could charge less because of lower gas taxes, he said.
But things have come to end for him and his brother, 79-year-old Jim Kean.
“It came down to a question of age. We decided we were finally going to get out of business and retire,” Raleigh Kean said.
He says there was an urban myth about why the station bucked the modernization trend – that his mother lived nearby and wanted the business to stay full-service for her friends. “That’s not really the facts,” he said.
Matt Helson works at the station and says some loyal customers have come from across the wider Chicago region. They were concerned about the sale, but Helson said the new owner plans to keep the station full-service because it's so popular.
“A lot of people were worried that it was just going to be another generic gas station, and a lot of people were worried that a lot of the old employees were going to be leaving,” Helson said.
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