From: "Mark" 

The owner of the local Flying A station in my neighborhood in the 60s made
his money on car repairs, in fact he once said that he barely made enough
on the gas to pay the kid to pump it (I have a feeling he was overstating
that case a bit, but I've no doubt it's not a high profit thing for the
stations). As an unrelated note, his head mechanic, Joe, loved Edsels and
had 3-4 of them to cannabilize for parts for the one he drove (lime green
and white as I recall).


"Gary Britt"  wrote in message
news:431ccfeb$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>A lot of the incentive and profitability for the mom and pop franchised
> stations died with the death of full service gas stations.  The retail
> seller's profit margins on gas are so small (.5 cents to 2 cents a gallon
> in
> a normal competitive market) and competition at retail so strong that it
> is
> very easy to sell gas for a month at a loss on every gallon sold.  Most
> mom
> and pop operations that sell franchised gas have a convenience store as
> well, and its the convenience store that generates the profits.  In the
> past
> it was the full service extra price and repairs and service that generated
> the profits.  Today its the gum and candy bars, etc.
>
> Gary
>
> "Robert G Lewis"  wrote in message
> news:431cca0a{at}w3.nls.net...
>> The (very) few independent owner operators I have known were forced out
>> by
>> the oil companies in the 80's and early 90's, replaced by Company owned
> and
>> operated  convenience stores.
>>
>> Here there are two local chains still privately owned. I don't know of
>> any
>> Mom and Pop owned stations in the Metro  area. In the (more) rural
> areas
>> its a different story I expect.
>>
>> I suspect that the Majors took over what they considered to be the more
>> profitable locations where they could.
>>
>> I wonder if they divested some or most of their stations with the mergers
> in
>> the 90's ?
>>
>> Bob Lewis
>>
>> "Gary Britt"  wrote in message
>> news:431cb0a5$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>> > George almost all gas stations are independent.  Wholesale is
>> > controlled
>> > to
>> > a great extent by the few manufacturers, but the manufacturers
> distribute
>> > through non-owned wholesalers.  Its nothing like phone or electrical
>> > utilities.
>> >
>> > If it were as you say gas prices wouldn't ever go down.  They would
> always
>> > be high.  Gas prices fluctuate with demand (i.e. they are always higher
> in
>> > summer), if it was a phone company type monopoly there wouldn't be such
>> > summertime fluctuation, the price would always be as high as the market
>> > would bear.
>> >
>> > Gary
>> >
>> > "Geo"  wrote in message
news:431ca8ee$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>> >> That's crap, Gas stations aren't independent anymore, they are all
>> > corporate
>> >> owned. The independents were taken out in 1974 when they decided it
> would
>> > be
>> >> helpful to have competition at the pump price. Gasoline
supply (as in
>> >> wholesale) is just as much a monopoly any more as telephone service
>> >> and
>> >> should be regulated the same as the phoneco is.
>> >>
>> >> Geo.
>> >>
>> >> "Ellen K." 
wrote in message
>> >> news:2k1ph11c9cnslrt7bl91hvk21bpfusv4m3{at}4ax.com...
>> >> > You're right, but OTOH gas station owners have to
make a living too.
>> >> > If
>> >> > gasoline were a utility provided by the government
that would be
>> >> > different.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>

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