What small business pays for oil

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I frequent a small town auto parts store because it's convenient and the owner is extremely resourceful at keeping my Citroens and Ladas going.

Anyway, I was talking to him about motor oil. He said he pays $14.50 a gallon for 15-40 Rotella and obviously cannot compete with the Wal-Mart and TSC 15 miles away. Conversely, he can buy a gallon of Wolf's Head 15-40 for $9. This guy moves pallet fulls of Wolf's Head to the local farmers based upon cost and he's been in business for 40 years and been through it being a Shell brand to the current Amalie brand and never had an issue.

I was just surprised that as small enterprise he can get the Wolf's Head cheap and the Shell is that much more.
 
Amalie is an old brand that does little to no advertising as well as does some store brands like Prime Series sold at Sam's Club. They still sponsor a few racing events. Wolf's Head is an old, old brand. Amalie has a good business model supplying smaller shops. I am glad your friend found a way to compete with Walmart effectively and make a living.
 
Interesting as there's a tiny, little auto parts shop in our downtown that has cases of Wolf's Head oil stacked up. I don't even know the name of the store or haven't been inside. Looking through the window (during events that take place down there), it looks like a lot of stuff has dust on it from being there so long. They also have a sign in the front window that says "Cash or check only. No credit cards."
 
Shasta soda is like Wolf's Head and Shell Rotella is like Pepsi/Coke. Stores gotta pay more Pepsi/Coke than Shasta. Well known sought after brands command more money from the manufacturers/blenders, bakers... .

Small vs big retailer? Walmart as an example has their own fleet, company truck drivers and logistics network. So no middle man/oil distributor is involved with Walmart. They get trailer loads of oil sent from Sopus to their distribution centers, then shipped to the stores. Those savings are passed to the consumer. You get better service at the mom & pop auto parts store, but not better pricing on most things. I tend to shop both local and large retail chains.
 
Good to see small business sticking around. It is very hard to compete with WM, Costco and Amazon's buying power.
 
At my work we paid more for the oil than any of the discount places sold the oil for. My friend was part owners of a gun shop in Santa Rosa Calif and his ammo costs were higher than what Walmart sold the ammo for.
 
The good thing with brands like Wolf's Head is that if it carries the spec you require, like API SN-Plus or CK-4 (or earlier) then it's up to the job.

I know Wolf's Head make a few full synthetics that are listed GM web site as having Dexos1-Gen2, so they know how to make a good oil.
 
Although I am fortunate to score a huge stash of oil cheap from some recent walmart specials (i have a large fleet and more that is not even listed in my sig), I am troubled that you cannot even buy it in bulk like a 55GAL drum and still not be able to beat walmarts price. I'd have to commit to a 500 gallon fill of some kind of bulk oil to come close. That makes no sense and quite frankly it must be even more frustrating for small parts stores.
 
I bet that is a cool store hallstevenson. My place takes credit cards, but it's a very old school place. I'd try to go to that place sometimes. Probably full of neat stuff and some cool old guys.
 
Fifteen years ago, we had a poster in our distribution center that said SOPUS billed Walmart $700,000 every day. Maybe it's twice that now.
When you buy hundreds of millions of dollars of product in a year, you're going to get a better price than the guy who may spend a couple thousand.
The business has been this way for decades, and the small independents have always complained about it, but they understand and deal with it. Sadly, independent parts stores are an endangered species in my area now anyway.
 
You can buy a 55gal drum of rotella T4 15W-40 for $799 with free delivery from amazon.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by Ben Boyle
I bet that is a cool store hallstevenson. My place takes credit cards, but it's a very old school place. I'd try to go to that place sometimes. Probably full of neat stuff and some cool old guys.

I looked at it on Google Street View the other day. The sign actually says "Absolutely no credit or debit cards".

Reading their Google reviews, a lady had her battery die and walked there. She couldn't buy it because she only had credit/debit and the guy also told her she needs a certain "tool" to install the battery. He wouldn't sell her the tool. Her husband gets there with cash .... and he sells him the tool.

I get not taking credit cards because of the fees but in this day and age ? They take checks though.... Checks can bounce !
 
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