How Did K.C. Irving Get Gasoline When Imperial Oil Cut Him Off?

Shane Parrish says K.C. Irving went looking for his own gasoline after Imperial Oil cut him off and expected him to stick to selling cars.

Imperial was controlled by the Standard Oil empire and was not fond of competition. Irving found a supply in Tulsa, Oklahoma, nearly 2,000 miles away, wired the money south, and had the gasoline shipped north in a railway tank car. He then needed somewhere to store it, so he ordered a 10,000-gallon tank, 40 times the size of the one he had buried a few years earlier. Neighbors said Imperial Oil would skin him alive. His father and half-brother both declined to join. He said he would do it alone, hired a carpenter, and drove a good share of the nails himself, on a $2,000 bank loan and one month of credit.

To beat Imperial he needed a better product, so he blended the Tulsa gasoline into a mix that could start faster in a cold engine. Imperial sold a gasoline called Premier and a rival sold White Rose, so he combined the names and called his Primrose. Before long he was doing 95% of the gasoline business in town. Asked later whether Imperial had created Irving Oil by cutting him off, he said it would have been only a matter of time before he went into business for himself anyway.