By Suzanne Hodgson
Staff Writer

It has been more than a year since gasoline seemed to be worth its weight in gold, but at one local service station, such a trade may still be possible.
Byron Kindley, an Arundel town selectman says desperation has driven him to consider different ways to bring business into his Valero gas station on Route 1 near Biddeford Crossing.
An avid coin collector, Kindley, 61, buys gold and silver in the gas station. He said people bring him in scrap metal or old broken gold rings and other jewelry.
Kindley said that buying precious metals is different from trading rare coins. Customers who think they will get more money for a coin from the 1800s versus a bunch of gold chains are apt to leave disappointed.
Gold is weighed by the gram and sometimes the shop will get as much as 10 or 12 grams per customer. Kindley checks online for how much gold or silver is going for that day and hands the customer cash within minutes after they walk through the door.
At current rates of $36 per gram, 10 grams of gold or about one-third of an ounce, would fetch $360.
The cash for gold industry has picked up recently at Kindley’s store. He credits the increased traffic to the economy, despite competition from online and mail-in cash-for-gold vendors.
“They’re going to hand me the gold and I’m going to hand them the money,” said Kindley, “There’s no guarantee they’ll get the money when they send it off.”
Kindley’s store also sells beer, lottery tickets and the usual items found inside any gas station, but the gas itself is what made Kindley try selling different items.
While gas is what makes people stop at the Valero station, many customers who used to come inside to pay now swipe a credit card at the pump and leave without setting foot inside.
Credit card companies’ processing fees cut into those already thin profit margins, Kindley says. Every time a customer swipes a card, it gives the credit card company 2.5 percent of each sale.
Last week Kindley was selling gas for 5 cents more than his purchase price. After customers swiped their credit cards, Kindley made a profit of two-tenths of a cent per gallon, he said.
Beth Lachance, one of the station’s employees, has worked at Valero for six months and so far loves the job.
“I like to talk to people,” she said. But Lachance’s favorite part of work? “Tagging is the best part for me because I get to stab the deer in the leg. I don’t do that in everyday life, so it’s kind of cool to do it at work,” she said.
This is the station’s first year as a certified game inspection station. After hunters shoot game the station tags or certifies that the animal was legally hunted.
All staff members are supposed to be responsible for inspecting the animal, and then stabbing it, as Lachance described, with a certification tag.
Jessica Roy, who has worked at the station for nearly three years, says while everyone that works at the store is supposed to help with the tagging, she herself has never stabbed an animal.
 “I refuse,” she said.
 “I tagged a black bear shot by a 14-year-old girl on her first hunting experience,” Kindley said.
In the future, Kindley is looking at the possibility of putting two different prices on his gas, one for those using credit cards to pay at the pump, and a lower price for those customers paying with cash. Kindley says it is the competition among stations that have the credit card systems on their outside pump station, that has kept him using the credit cards.
“You have to do whatever you can to bring additional customers coming into the store,” Kindley said.
The Valero station workers say they really enjoy their jobs working for Kindley, but no employee works harder or puts in more hours than Niko.
Niko, a large black cat, spends 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the counter – unless you’re looking for him. Like most cats, Niko does what he pleases.
Niko has been at the station since it opened. He spends his days purring at customers walking through the door, eating food kept downstairs in the basement and sprawled across the counter top.
This is Kindley’s 14th year in the gas station business. It all started after he retired from the phone company and his girlfriend at the time told him he needed to find something to do.
As he was driving in Biddeford one day, he came across a gas station for lease and a few years later bought this station. He enjoys being at work so much, he converted the upstairs into an apartment.
“I’ll never retire totally,” said Kindley. “People who retire, die.”

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.