Valero Corner Store

Don’t treat your customers who are in your store badly no matter what or it will make them continue to treat you the same back! Nice breeds nice! Just my personal advice after 20 plus years of customer service. Before today I would give this store at least 4 stars. If management does something about the way the one new day shift employees has been treating people after he has been having a bad day then maybe I could update this review. I really am upset with the way the new employees are treating the people who come in every single day because they work or live close to this store. I’m talking also about the people who don’t cause trouble or give them a hard time. We all know in this area that a lot of BS is endured but please don’t take it out on others. Even the dirty, stinky and just down right gross people who come in this store may be more understanding when they are asked to leave if it’s asked nicely for once. A power trip never will make stupid people suddenly have the ability to comprehend & have reasoning skills. Being a grumpy poop and expressing it will only make the good people who treat the cashiers nicely start to give back what is given to them. Treat even the mean people nice and you will find that over time they will start to mimic the same behavior! Human behavior 101! :-)

A Tweaker’s Paradise!
It’s a great place to go if you want to be offered stolen property from the back of a van. (Yes, this really happened to me.)
But’s not such a great place to buy gas.
Your desire (or lack thereof) to spend time here will be directly proportional to the amount of psychostimulants and/​or opioids in your system.

I have lived next to this busy gas station for many years and I go there, or walk my dog past multiple times a day. This place is a hub of insanity; home-​base to drug dealers & addicts, alcoholics, untreated schizophrenics, transients, prostitutes, and lots of tourists. Drug deals are made in plain view and it’s not uncommon for frantic tweakers to approach people for money while they pump their gas. Dudes sit on their curb and get drunk or smoke crack. There’s often dudes working on bikes by the air pump, or dudes spray painting stolen bikes. The area on the side of the gas station is freshly littered daily with trash, urine, syringes and yes, human feces. (The poor people that clean up should surely get paid much more.) Transient-​types gather here and are often sprawled across the sidewalk making it impossible to pass — safer just to walk in the street.
A major bummer is that I’ve regularly observed staff sell alcohol to drunk people and obvious alcoholics, sunburned and bloated. Sometimes they cannot even count their own pile of pennies. Be prepared to wait in line a while…
These are just the regular day-​to-​day occurrences, not the ‘exceptional’ incidences. Nevertheless, Valero does not enforce anti-​loitering, actively report suspicious or criminal activity (or police would be there ²⁴⁄₇), or take substantial measures to ensure the safety of their staff who are constantly dealing with unstable and potentially dangerous people. The staff are generally patient and are mostly friendly and respectful to the diverse population that they deal with. They come across as either resigned to the chaos, or totally stressed out. It’s apparent that they are not provided adequate resources /​support in order to operate safely. A manager once said they feel in danger of retaliation if they refuse service or call the police to get them to leave. They felt powerless to deal with the situation given the scope of the problem.
Valero! Do the right thing and take action to address these issues — stop selling to drunks and hire a security guard during your open hours! You can afford it!

Friendly staff. Good selection Thats about it. How do you like being harassed by transients for money? How bout watching drug deals go down? Prostitution? Just keep an eye out for the cars parked to the left of the gas station if facing it. Chronically under patrolled. The outside activity needs to be cleaned up. It’s a disgusting representation of Santa Cruz. Right there on ocean st where everybody drives by when coming to our town.

It is indeed great for people watching, during the day. Only had to wait 10 minutes for homeless people in the single unisex restroom. Staff was fun and friendly to talk to. But are none of you Californians trying to quit smoking (cigarettes)? I bought an electronic cigarette and they said it’s the first they have ever sold…

Cheap gas and it’s proximity to the freeway make this the best gas station on Ocean St.

In a pinch. this place is awesome

One thing about «ex-Beacon»…there’s always some shit going on. When purchasing a cold beer to go you can always hear a tale about somebody’s old man who left em’, another about how their part is almost in from the auto parts store to fix their 78′ Econoline, or even a tale of a night on meth gone awry. Got duct tape? Feel free to help somebody repair their bike in the parking lot.
Solid service and good folk all around. If any city council members are reading this, I suggest you spend a day there.

Nice little gas station and convenience store.
Stopped in one evening to pick up a few cold bottles of bottled water. Steady stream of folks coming in here to buy soda and stuff. Pretty close to the Hampton In hotel — so very convenient.
And they accept Amex — unlike the little twit gas station/​convenience store right next door to the Hampton Inn hotel.

As a gas station, it’s, you know, a gas station. They have gas and… stuff.
As a place to stop off for gas as you get off the freeway on your way home, it is unparalleled. The people watching is simply world class. I never stop here without some kind of human catastrophe unfolding before me… some sunburnt lady with no shoes getting in a fight with her boyfriend and just walking off, down Ocean Street… fortysomething lowlifes on little BMX bikes doing deals right on the street… crazy homeless people trudging into oncoming traffic with their shopping carts, screaming at an imaginary person the whole time… two-​ton tessie leaving the Mickey D’s across the street with two bags full of fast food and walking across the street with one boob fully exposed and just flapping in the breeze.