Heebie Jeebie
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2013
- Messages
- 5,016
- Reaction score
- 1,290
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Undisclosed
I know two people who own service stations. One whose family has been in the business for over forty years in the same location. Both tell me that they make their big money off the sale of the hundreds of other items that they sell which includes everything from breakfast sandwiches to candy to soda pop to magazines to milk and bread. They do make money off gasoline but not as much. And they both admit that they set prices determined by the competing stations closest to them. It is NOT customers which determine their prices but a combination of the major oil companies and their competition.
The older one said that years ago, when they had two service bays, that is where the big profits came from but today the same space yields more profit per square foot in the afore mentioned items.
Yes most gas stations do make more on the store portion, that is why you don't see to many with garages anymore, but most people don't pick which gas station they use based on the prices of the junk food in the store portion. They choose it on the price of the gas.