Mills Squeegee gas station by Abel-Sandoz closing after 15 years

The sign in the window of the Mobil convenience store and gas station on the corner of 17th and Vine streets reads "Thank you for 15 great years."

The Mills Squeegee Fill Station next to the Abel-Sandoz Residence Center on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus isn't celebrating its 15-year anniversary, but showing the staff's gratitude for its customers as it prepares to close.

"I hate to close the store," said Stan Mills, store owner and CEO at Mills Squeegee Fill Stations. "I love being on the university campus. I love the faculty, the students, the support staff — they're great people. It's a vibrant community that keeps you young."

The convenience store will close Dec. 16. The lease expires Dec. 31, but in those two weeks, the staff will clear the store and the gas pumps.

Mills said he made the decision because the store had outlived its usefulness. It was no longer profitable, he said.

Evolving traffic circulation and competition from the UNL C-Stores made the current model outdated, Mills said.

"You got an NCard, you got a convenience store in the dormitories, why (would you) go outside?" he said.

Mills assured the station's employees at a meeting last Monday that they would be placed in other locations at a meeting last Monday.

Bobbi Long, the assistant manager of the store, has worked there for 13 months. She said she plans on staying with the company and working at another location.

"It definitely took us all by surprise," Long said. "A little bit of shock, wondering what it means for us."

Mills said the reaction of customers has been mostly disappointment. This is because the station offers a wider variety of snacks as well as Coke products, instead of the Pepsi products the university sells, he said.

Long said she's seen disappointment among the store's customers.

"Most of (our customers) are signing our shirts as a goodbye," she said.

Cassandra Trgovcich, a junior nutrition major, said the store closing "stinks." She said she likes its closeness to Pound Residence Hall as well as its hours.

She said she goes to the convenience store to buy snacks and energy drinks.

"It depends on what I want because the vending machines don't have as much variety," Trgovcich said.

She said she liked the fresh cookies the store has.

Long said she had no problem coming to work and it was hard to walk away from the store.

"Stan gave me a job when I was literally down on my luck," she said. "It helped me greatly at the time, just the opportunity to be myself and grow in this company."

Long said the employees have built relationships with the faculty and students who come into the store. It's like losing your family, she said.

Mills echoed the sentiment.  

"I run into people all of the time who went to UNL, and they say, ‘We used to come down there all the time,'" he said. "They all remember the store. It was their oasis on campus when they got a snack attack."

Mills said he wishes there was another option to let the store stay on campus.

"I hate moving on," he said. "There (were) a lot of sleepless nights in the decision to close the store."

UNL students can park their cars in the store's parking lot. Mills said, for the foreseeable future, they will still be able to use those parking spaces.

Mobil will meet with NEBCO, who will deal with student-parking in the lot, on Monday, Mills said.

"I want to let the university know I appreciate the business over the years," he said.

kimbuckley@dailynebraskan.com