Gasoline price blues weigh on dealers, too

Yeah..... right! Frankly, they are making just a big of profits on gasoline as the oil companies are, period. I've had a person who owns a local Wawa station tell me that!

This is a big lie from the people who own the filling stations, and only a fool would believe it.

i feel sorry for him !

There is definitely some fuzzy math going on here. While I have read for many years gas stationownerrs do not make huge profits off gas sales, it comes more from the convenience items, I fail to see how outsourcing "paperwork" to India does anything. How much paperwork are you outsourcing Mr Jackson?Id like that explained.

Otherwise, I can see how many are getting crunched here in MD with the "zone" pricing. A wholesaler charging you based on what they think your marketare will bare, except, in MD many commute, so they will easily buy outside "the zone" when prices get to this height. That kind of shoots that system in the foot. Which definitely leaves the station owners at a disadvantage.

We are missing the underlying problem here... The credit card companies! There is not reason that their fees need to be as high as they are. they are part of the "chain of thieves" that are gouging the motorist. We are long overdue for an investigation and reform of that whole industry. I do not use credit cards. I never have and I never will. They, along with our government, are crooks and thieves. Pay with cash and help the independent station owners. The gas stations should stop accepting credit card sales, period. Pay with cash, or no fuel. The payments to the thieving credit card companies would cease and they would be reined in. Companies get away with this nonsense because we continue to allow it. We are the consumers, we control the money flow and who we chose to deal with. Wake up America and get some balls!

I'm getting tired of station owners complaining about consumers using credit cards. Yes it does suck that the station owners have to pay 2% or whatever it is for each credit card transaction.

The credit card companies are hardly to blame, as someone else said on here. They mention that gas stations should stop accepting credit cards. That will NEVER work, a station that tries to pull that will be out of business in 2 weeks. There is a gas station near my home that accepts credit cards, yet they chrage 5 cents more a gallon for a credit card purchase. Even though this station is less than a mile from my house, and I drive by it twice a day, I have NEVER patronized that station simply because they charge 5 cents more a gallon for credit card purchases. There is no way in 2008 I'm going to pay extra for the privilege of using a credit card. It's a cost of doing business for the station owners, and they just need to start sucking it up, or get out of the gas business.

Bottom line, I'm not going to make a run to the ATM every time I need to purchase something, that is a huge inconvenience to me and it wastes gas on top of it!

If you believe Big Oil - nobody makes a profit in their industry; but none seem to be able to explain how so many get so wealthy. Bush & Cheney have screwed up the economy so bad in the last 8 years that hopefully voters in both parties now realize nobody represents our interests in Washington. There are a lot of show hearings on credit cards, mortgages, and oil and energy; but never any real reform .. the politicians know where their next buck comes from and it isn't the citizens.

Don't completely blame the credit card companies. If there were limits set in advance, there wouldn't be so many dopes with high interest cards maxed out all the time who have more of a chance to default. When they default guess who gets to eat the losses (not just the cc companies). Establishing a set limit on credit would be well worth it to get people to start thinking about finances in a realistic manner. Sending that tiny little pamphlet with the interest rate in what looks like braille to most does not help at all. 90% don't bother to read that at all, they are on the horn activating the card and running out to live further in debt to keep up "wit de Jonese's".

It would be really helpful
if a newspaper
actually reported on
the actual costs of a gallon of gas--
e.g.,
a detailed story about the cost
of a gallon of gasoline--
who gets how much $$--
oil driller, pipeline, shipping,
refining, oil company profit,
delivery to gas station,
gas station profit, federal, state, local taxes, and so on.....

"One of his Prince George's County stores fared a little better that day, selling 8,000 gallons and clearing about 10 cents a gallon, or $800, in gross profit. But even so, he said,$418 went for credit card fees."

How does this math work??? If credit card fees are 2% of the transaction, how does it work out in the above quote to be over 50%. I know some credit card companies have a minumum charge but still???.......

Christopher wrote:

Yeah..... right! Frankly, they are making just a big of profits on gasoline as the oil companies are, period. I've had a person who owns a local Wawa station tell me that!
This is a big lie from the people who own the filling stations, and only a fool would believe it.

You're the fool! Wawa's are all company-owned. Look on their website FAQ. So there's not any "person who owns a local Wawa"!!!

You didn't tell us in any detail who makes the profits.

Truth wrote:

"One of his Prince George's County stores fared a little better that day, selling 8,000 gallons and clearing about 10 cents a gallon, or $800, in gross profit. But even so, he said,$418 went for credit card fees."
How does this math work??? If credit card fees are 2% of the transaction, how does it work out in the above quote to be over 50%. I know some credit card companies have a minumum charge but still???.......

Some merchant gateways require you to place a certain percentage in a deposit account. Especially more so when you have no established credit yourself and are a newer merchant. They can tack that on you for years if they see fit. You have no access to that money until they release it. So in essence it IS possible to have a merchant not raking in the $$$ faster than he can count. If we had better safety/security procedures in place for not only customers but for merchants, we would ALL be in far better shape.

Truth wrote:

"One of his Prince George's County stores fared a little better that day, selling 8,000 gallons and clearing about 10 cents a gallon, or $800, in gross profit. But even so, he said,$418 went for credit card fees."
How does this math work??? If credit card fees are 2% of the transaction, how does it work out in the above quote to be over 50%. I know some credit card companies have a minumum charge but still???.......

The charge is not on the profit, the charge is on the total cost. If we use today's average price of around $3.65 for a gallon, he took in $29,200l. The charge card average of 2% comes to $584 of the total. That leaves him with $216 in profits.

Christopher wrote:

Yeah..... right! Frankly, they are making just a big of profits on gasoline as the oil companies are, period. I've had a person who owns a local Wawa station tell me that!
This is a big lie from the people who own the filling stations, and only a fool would believe it.

WAWA's are company owned, they are NOT franchises.

Oh yeah, that's right, you're the idiot that wants to eliminate the military.

Tinfoil hat getting a little tight, Chris?

HRC wrote:

Just a shout out to Larry Jackson, retailer in Ellicott City. Sending your accounting business to a site in India is a great way to build customer loyalty. I'll be using the internet today to see if I can figure out which gas stations you own so I can make sure you get none of my business. I hope you go under and end up working in a Dunkin Donuts. Get my drift?

I don’t know who Larry Jackson is, but I second that. I hope all these fools sending work over to these third world countries end up in the soup line. Please list the names of gas stations this person owns.

Gas prices affect more then just filling up the gas tank in your own car. When fuel prices rise. Delivery companies are paying more to fuel their vehicles. Then they have to raise their delivery surcharges to accomodate the high fuel prices. And retailers have to start paying more for the deliveries. So then retail prices go up to accomodate the fuel prices. And the bad part is. Our wages do not go up to accomodate everything else going up. And that is causing many Americans to cut spending. And some employers have to cut employee hours. Cut pay. And even lay off employees. And up where I live in PA people are starting to drive more aggressive over the rising gas prices as the stress from it goes up. Since the only way to get around in the country is drive.

why don't they don't offer a discount for people who pay cash?

Oh well I guess if they were smart they wouldn't be pumping gas for livng to begin with

Some places in fact do offer discounts to those who pay cash. Like the Petro Station on York Rd in Timonium is 6 cents cheaper with cash then credit. Which is where I fill up my gas tank these days. Which the cash price is $3.65 per gallon today. Then theres a Citco station on Timonium Rd that does the same thing.

Governor O'Malley will fix the problem with high gas prices just like he fixed the BGE rate increase. He really showed those punks at BGE who is the boss. I drive a state car so I really don't worry about high gas prices. Neither does Marty.

Bababooey wrote:

<quoted text>
Some merchant gateways require you to place a certain percentage in a deposit account. Especially more so when you have no established credit yourself and are a newer merchant. They can tack that on you for years if they see fit. You have no access to that money until they release it. So in essence it IS possible to have a merchant not raking in the $$$ faster than he can count. If we had better safety/security procedures in place for not only customers but for merchants, we would ALL be in far better shape.

Your answer is some....go with ones that don't. But, your logic makes no sense anyway. The credit isn't based on the store owners credit, it is based on the buyers credit. Why would a credit card gateway care about the credit of the store owner?