Abandoned Ready 2 Go

November 2025 picture. This was attempted to make the same angle as the GasSigns.org picture below. Billups Service Station first opened at 1600 S. College Avenue in 1957 in what was a huge opening for a small gas station, and in the mid-1970s rebuilt with a modern convenience store (Brazos CAD says 1975). At some point in the 1980s, the whole chain was rebranded as Charter Food Stores, and in 1988 the chain was bought by Circle K. (There were 538 stores at the time, with three in Bryan and one in Hearne).

Remarkably, there is a picture of what it looked like in the Charter days, perhaps one of the only examples of what Charter looked like. Despite Circle K's plans, the gas stations remained as Charter¹ but otherwise was a Circle K in all but name² and was sold to Duke & Long in 1999 with the other (few) Circle K stores in town, all getting rebranded as Conoco (with an "Everyday" convenience store). Within a few years this had dissolved and the former Circle K stores went their different ways, with this one becoming Ready 2 Go by mid-2003, and if it had the Conoco branding in this era that went away by the mid-2000s. After deteriorating for years, the gas station was finally dead by summer 2020.

1. Circle K filed for bankruptcy protection in 1990, which probably explains why Charter wasn't rebranded.
2. Local ads referred to the stores as "Circle K/Charter".