Markham Lee_

Oil Majors Exiting the Gas Station Business

Dan your point on higher gas prices impacting the convenience store business is a solid one, I recall back in 98-'01 I would go to my local convenience store and fill-up my tank, buy the NY Times, a Gallon of Milk and Donuts for my girlfriend and I for under $20.00.

Nowadays it's close to $70.00 for the Gas, the Milk is a LOT more expensive, but hey, at least the Donuts are close to the same price.

-M

Oil Majors Exiting the Gas Station Business

I think it's a situation where in order to sell gas profitably they have to more or less become convenience store operators and/or run a car wash, provide oil changes, etc, and it's just too much of a distraction from their core business/not worth the investment.

Despite living in a fairly affluent area there have been multiple gas station closings near me lately, and it seems like the ones that survive are the ones that not only have fairly extensive convenience store operations that also sell fresh sandwiches (and even wine) they also have car washes too.

It's not that different a model than my local Safeway: "sell gas and hope to break even, while making our profits from other things".


Thanks for reading.


-M