Is Your Local Gas Station Gouging You?
Whenever gas prices rocket up like they have over the last month, people evidently would come to me and complain about their local gas station gouging them. Well, in last Sunday's edition of the SF Chronicle, there was an article analyzing gas prices and where the gas money actually goes. The article gives the breakdown as follows.
$1.12 Crude Oil
$0.87 Refining
$0.52 Taxes
$0.07 Distributing, marketing and service station profits
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$2.58 TOTAL
Notice the 7 cents for the service station profits. About ten years ago, I worked as a bookkeeper for a local gas station. I think the station was getting about 5 cents. So, the station's gas profits were in the hundreds, not thousands, of dollars per day. The station got most of its profits from servicing cars.
My younger brother took over the bookkeeper position when I left about ten years ago. He was eventually laid-off from the position about a year or two ago. The station was simply not making much money.
I know that this is probably not what you want to hear. But, if you are looking for someone to blame for the high gas prices, it is probably not the good folks running the local gas station.
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