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Nooo, not the Rojo!
By adamg on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 10:01am
I know, it's stupid to get upset about a change of ownership signs at a gas station you never actually bought gas at, but Lyss's photo showing what's going on at Rojo in Norwood leaves me a little verklempt. There was just something about that place, with its employees whose sole job was to direct cars in the ever present lines to the next available pump, its three different types of car wash (including the mysterious Laser Wash), even that weird bookstore, all combined to make it seem like a place out of time. And apparently it was, because now it's becoming an Irving. "The mystery of Rojo" sounds cool. "The mystery of Irving" sounds, well, lame.
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Comments
Blame Canada
Tim Hortons, Irving, TD Banknorth, ....
Us Canadians are taking over New England.
Elsewhere in Norwood
A giant empty warehouse store will remain a giant empty warehouse store.
To access that site, you
To access that site, you have to turn off Rt 1 and drive around the back of the building - not very shopper-friendly.
why did the previous store here close?
and what was the building used for before it was that store?
It was an HQ
Which I think was a Home Depot clone, only in green. Maybe it failed because nobody went to it?
I think Ron was asking what
I think Ron was asking what the store was before HQ.
If memory serves it was newly-constructed as an HQ store, and as for Anon's comment about accessing the site, it used to have a entrance directly from Rte. 1, and unless I'm mistaken it still does. It failed because Home Depot moved into the areas they served and killed them off. I think Grossman's avoided a similar fate by transforming their stores into House 'O' Crap outlets.
HQ
I think it was first built as an HQ store, part of a failed chain that tried to compete with Home Depot. They also spent a lot of money to build one on the side of a hill in Natick along Route 9, which closed almost immediately after opening, and soon became a Jordan's furniture store.
As someone whose entire
As someone whose entire family lives in Norwood and grew up passing by the Rojo since forever ...
... there were NOT always insane lines or people directing cars as a fixture of the station. Around the time when gas hit $2/gallon (ah, the good old days), someone called into a radio station that was doing a "call and tell us where you get your cheap gas" bit and someone called in for Rojo. THE NEXT DAY, they were slammed and stayed slammed since (for the past several years or so).
Bluecanoe too?
If they put the Bluecanoe store in, too, someone on Chowhound was just very enthusiastic about their muffins - http://www.chowhound.com/topics/534852
I've gassed up at Irvings, but never had a reason to check out the stores until now!
The owner passed away
The owner passed away earlier this year. Not really a mystery, IMO.
who was the owner?
who was the owner?
. . .
The owner passed away earlier this year. Not a mystery, IMO.
No change of ownership
The Norwood Record reports on the changeover:
dirty car
I snapped that picture when I pulled in to Rojo/Irving hoping that the car wash was open. Car wash was closed.