Massachusetts gas station owner makes 'heartbreaking' decision to close after nearly five decades

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Massachusetts gas station owner forced to close after nearly five decades

The father and son behind Rem's Mobil in Amherst discuss making the 'gut-wrenching' decision to close up shop on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

Massachusetts gas station owner Reynold Gladu has been providing gas to the Amherst community for nearly 50 years, but with prices soaring past $5 a gallon, he's made the difficult decision to close.

When Massachusetts topped the national average with a listed gas price of $5.04 a gallon, Gladu, the owner of Ren’s Mobil Service, made the decision to sell his last remaining gallons and opted out of buying more. After 48 years in the business, he could no longer go along with what he believed was an industry taking advantage of long-time customers in his community, he told "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

"The reason why I’m ready to close is because of the high prices of gas that I refuse to pass onto my consumers," he explained in an interview Tuesday. "More than half are senior citizens that have been with me for 48 or some odd years."

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Jeff Gladu, the owner’s son and current station manager, told Tucker Carlson that the past few weeks have been "gut-wrenching" for the family.

"I started working for my dad when I was 10, just tagging along on Saturdays and holidays and weekends and that was the highlight of my life," Jeff Gladu said. "Most of those customers back in the late '70s, early ’80s were in their 40s and 50s and now as we’ve all moved on in our lives, now we are getting them in the twilight of their lives."

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Jeff Gladu recalled a heartbreaking exchange he had with a longtime customer after his father announced that he was no longer able to offer reasonable gas prices, and would close his doors as a result.

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"We had a lady come in the other day crying because her husband died years ago. She’s never put gas in her car. She was like, how do I put gas in my car? My dad and I and my son have offered to take any senior citizen in our area that’s one of our customers to an additional station, one of our competitors no doubt, to fill up their tanks because we love our customers so much," he said.

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Ren's Mobil Service will continue to offer repair services and will keep its used car business operational for now. But their bottom line is expected to take a significant hit. 

 "The bread-and-butter for us is gas," the younger Gladu said. "It’s heartbreaking."

Fox News' Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.