Petro at Deming - A Surprisingly Good Stop

I drive between Phoenix and Texas more than most individuals do. Generally, I keep my stops around Tucson, AZ and Lordsburg, NM. Every time I make the drive, I see Deming advertise that they have a Starbucks at their Petro station just outside Deming. Since they advertise the Starbucks, I thought this might make it a more frequently visited rest stop. I decided to make a visit to Stop 68.

I hadn’t been to a Petro station before, and I haven’t been since.

I don’t know if they are all the same, but it is not what I expected. This place had a lot. It was actually nice, and included a restaurant, travel store and the Starbucks – Oh, and an arcade.

The Starbucks even had little centerpieces on each table.

I was pleasantly surprised so far, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much about the bathroom.

I walked into the Women’s restroom and was greeted by a pleasant potpourri scent.

Overall, the color scheme and lighting was appealing. A quick glance told me that this was a multi-stall bathroom with mainly motion-activated devices for the faucets, {scented, foamy} soap, and hand drying.

I noticed a sign near the door that identified their pledge to a cleaner restroom, and even included the manager’s card – which I thought was a nice touch.

The first stall I walked into had a wad of toilet paper still in it. Not the most sanitary, but not precisely the fault of the staff there. One thing that did catch my eye was that there were no lids on the trash cans in the individual stalls. There’s no actual rule saying you have to have a lid on it, but considering the things that could go into the trash can, I’d prefer having a trash can with a lid.

There may have previously been a problem with customers dropping items on the floor, resulting in the signs posted up.

The toilets had manual flushing rather than buttons or motion-activated. Locks twisted into place.

One additional thing noticed was a scale of some sort, next to the counter. I’ve seen them in a lot of rural pit stop-type places.

So – Let’s Break It Down

Cleanliness

4/5 Nothing looked visibly dirty, except for the one toilet with the additional toilet paper in it

Smell

5/5 The bathroom actually smelled good, like either air freshener or potpourri

Stock

4/5 There didn’t seem to be additional stock or supplies within sight, but everything I saw seemed well-stocked

Space

3/5 Area and spacing was overall adequate. It wasn’t roomy, but fortunately it wasn’t confined quarters

Lighting

4/5 Pretty well-lit

Environment

4/5 The overall Petro stop was pretty cool, especially for being outside of a relatively rural New Mexico town

'Wow' Factor

3/5 The bathroom itself was not overall extraordinary. I did appreciate the extra touch of the manager having his card available and the scent of the bathroom.

So out of the potential 35 total, Mile 68’s Petro women’s restroom came in at 27. Even though stopping here still requires that I stop in Tucson to fill up my tank, this may be one of my preferred stops going forward.