Hello,
Shell is a huge global brand, with stores all over the world, so this would be considered a generic business, as well as a chain, and is ineligible. We have a few Shell gas stations where I live, and none have Wayspots. I did find this info from 5 years ago about Shell Select stores being a part of the Shell brand, and being put in place all over the world:
And here’s one from 2022 that Shell Select was being opened in Ecuador:
There are some chains out there that have sponsored Wayspots in some of the games, but the company has paid NIantic to have them in the game(s), so it’s a little different. In the US in October, we received stops/gyms in PoGo at Walmart stores; Walmarts are ineligible by Wayfarer standards, but they have a sponsorship deal with Niantic/PoGo, hence why they have stops/gyms currently.
There have also been times when generic businesses do get Wayspots after being nominated and voted on by the community. Wayfarer does have an AI system now, ML for short, that does filter out a good deal of them, and rejects them. ML wasn’t fully in place in 2023, so most nominations were being voted on by the community still. Being that not all Shell stations use this model, I can see why it may have gotten through voting and approved, but I would have rejected it based on it being a part of the Shell brand.
We do have clarification on generic/non-generic businesses, and this should be followed when reviewing or nominating any business. Hopefully those who are saying generic businesses are eligible will be pointed to this info, so that they know the eligibility.