Jef, Shell stations are not dissapearing they are the only Oil company in the UK on a major spend initiative the now.
They have just bought over Total in the UK buying 1000 sites, sold off 500 of them to private dealers and are refurbishing the rest and rebranding them as Shell sites to the new format.
They are also NOT doing away with V-power, they might be coming in with a change option on Fuel save as it didnt say what it did on the tin so to speak ;-)
As for Knockers i havnt a clue.
Davie