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Wyoming gas station carries on tradition of full serve

Posted at 5:44 PM, Feb 13, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-13 19:55:05-05

WYOMING, Mich. -- The concept of a full-service gas station is hard to fathom for any driver who has gotten a license in the last couple of decades, but that doesn't mean it's gone forever. Don's Service at 28th Street and Byron Center in Wyoming still shows people what an old fashioned fill up is all about.

“I started here in 1967," Co-owner Hank Bloem tell FOX 17. "I was a paperboy here and I was hired to pump gas and mow lawns. I’ve been here 50 years and now I’m part owner of this garage.”

Bloem shares the business with Don Tigchelaar, whose father founded Don's Service in 1950. Since then a lot has changed around them, but the business has stayed the same.

donTigchelaar says in the '50s and '60s every station was full service until, “Along came the 70s and that’s when full serve kind of went by the wayside. A lot of the stations ended up going to self-serve but we decided to keep the full service.”

It's service that keeps regulars like Mike Bradcoski coming back for 16 years.

“I just pull up and they take care of the rest,” he said.

"Someone comes out and asks whether you’d like it filled up with gas, how much you would like and then we’ll do that," explains Tigchelaar, "We’ll wash the windshields, front and back windows, ask about the oil, whether you want the oil checked or not. We’ll take a look at the tires, make sure that the tires are inflated right. We just try to do the whole package for people.”

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Bloem says the team at Don's is proud to serve the West Michigan community.

“It’s a service we can still give to people who need it, whether it be handicap or elderly, or ladies who just don’t want to get out of the car, or businessmen who don’t want gasoline spilled on themselves and smell like gas so we fill a niche for that.”