Is name brand oil sold at walmart the same as sold at other stores?

[anndel01]

It is true that some products are made for a specific reseller. Computers are the classic example. Warshing machines.
And there are loss leaders. Costco loses money on the $5 chickens and possibly on the tires.

But the major oil companies are not gonna switch over and make a sprecial brew for Wally World. That would likely incur a larger cost than just making the same stuff. WW gets a volume price based on their huge sales.

The same goes for Costco and Sam's club gasoline. They take a loss selling gasoline but make it up on in-store sales.

 

[Wolf359]

The same goes for Costco and Sam's club gasoline. They take a loss selling gasoline but make it up on in-store sales.

There's a difference between not making much money on something and actually losing money on it. They probably just have a very small markup on it and it doesn't have to be very profitable and they make up for some of it by volume. They basically seem to do the same thing as their competitors, when prices go up, they try not to raise their gasoline prices too much as low prices drives sales and when prices come down, they don't lower them as much as competitors are also slower to lower prices so they actually make more money when prices are down than when prices are up.

 

[4WD]

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[bbhero]

Gasoline sales for the retailer are actually quite, quite low to begin with.... I talked with a friend of mine who was managing a East Coast gas station near me and he said it was 3-5 cents "profit" per gallon sold. And gas at the right was around $1. 39 for regular at that time in 2000.

Heck the refinery profit margin was 8-12 percent on average.