How much does gas cost the gas station?

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Does anybody know how much gas stations usually pay to get the gas they sell? How much do they usually add to the price per gallon? Just curious...
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not very much actually... back about 15 years ago my uncle owned a service station and made 10cents a gallon. he never was the cheapest in town, but he says it payed the light bill.


-Bret
 
I heard the same thing from a friends dad when I was younger,he said you had to have a mini mart,car wash or auto repair as part of the gas station just to make a nice profit.
 
In the late 90's I used to work for a goverment agency which bought fuel in bulk. At the time we were paying in the mid fifty cent range per gallon, exluding state and federal taxes, which totalled somewhere around 35-38 cents, for a total of .95-$1.00. Retail was probably $1.10-1.20, if my memory is correct. I remember the margin was pretty low, maybe 10-20 cents, so these figures seem to tie.
 
According to the Wall Street Journal web site New York futures for Feb 04 delivery are $.988/gal. To that you probably have to add the price of the additive package, delivery and tax.
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quote:

Originally posted by White Fang:
To that you probably have to add the price of the additive package, delivery and tax.
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Yup, especially the TAX part.
Take a look at the pump next time you gas up, it should tell you how much of the price is state and federal highway taxes, as well as state and local sales tax.
It's a sizable percentage, even in states with low road taxes.

A while back there was a bit of a price war going on here. A guy who runs a big truck stop had an ad on the radio saying that, yup, he was trying to meet the competition, but losing money on every gallon he sold, so "why don't you all gas up over across the road and then come over here for lunch."
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i've been told that when gas prices go up quickly the station's profit goes down to $.02 or $.01 per gallon. some station manager was complaining that when people where using thier credit cards to pay for half a tank of gas he actually lost money due to the cc fees.
they make all their money on the food and coffee sales.
 
...and that's when you get a credit card that rebates 3-5%. CSnews covers the convenience store racket pretty well.

A quick google finds that Chase among others (Gulf, BP/Amoco) have rebate cards.

My dad used to think he was a suck-up to his mechanic and got special treatment because he bought all his gas there. I get my fuel at sleazy convenience stores in bad neighborhoods, and at today's profit margins don't think the mechanic minds much.
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