LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

COCA-COLA, PEPSI, LAYS, SLIM JIMS etcetera.

d2b2 Loc: Catonsville, Maryland, USA

This is not brain surgery. The Stations are built by the Oil Companies - not the Dealers. And frankly, they are not being built every day. At least, not in the same way. Some of the smaller ones that are being built are not adding to the mix, but replacing older stations for better access to street corners and stoplights. The only ones are are adding to the number are those in newly developed areas, taking advantage of differing traffic patterns.

There are actually less Gas Stations now than five or ten years ago. The mammoth operations like WaWa, Sheetz and Royal Farm Stores (in the Mid-Atlantic states,) are being built on 2 to 3-Acre lots, with Convenience Stores of 15,000 to 20,000 square feet of retail space. THAT is where the money is - not the gas, which is used as loss leaders by those stores. Your average corner Station takes about $1.6 million to build; the BIG Stations with 18 pumps or so and huge stores are costing as much as $4 million. The mega-Stations are shoving the corner guys out of the market. And BP is trying to deal with fewer and fewer Station Operators, so the $4 million stores are being sold to holding companies. For example, all of the BP stations in Orlando (Florida) are now owned by one company. And the number of Distributors has been reduced by about 60%, within the past ten years. This gives the Oil Companies much more in the way of control over the distribution, and reducing the overhead they have on their books, because it takes less people to manage that lower number of Distributors and Stations.

Bmarsh Loc: Bellaire, MI

If you will recall, back when the 911 terrorist act occurred, the various service agencies claimed they couldn’t communicate with each other because they all operate on different radio frequencies. So when Hurricane Katrina hit, and I was traveling in Maine, I was amazed when even the little gas stations upped their prices overnight. I asked one owner how they get their information and was told that every morning they call into their “head office” to get the days price.

So it seems to me it is one long chain of phone calls down the line. The real question is: who is at the top setting the price?

dwermske

The price is set by futures traders months in advance to insure their respective clients have product when it is needed by their respective refineries. Each major oil company purchases oil futures in this way. Todays price of oil has little to do with the price of oil months from now when it is actually needed/refined by a refinery. And yes, prices are going to change almost daily based on the stability or instability of the world market price of oil. That's why it's so important that the US become as oil independent as possible so we can maintain economic stability our own economy. Wildly fluctuating oil prices destabilizes our whole economy.

wolftracker Loc: Tennessee

No to Citgo and NO to Exxon! Back when gas was in the $4.00/gallon range, Exxon had the nerve to publish that they were posting highest profits in their history. They were boasting that when I could not afford to fill up an empty tank, only partial fills at at time. If they are that rich they don't need or get any of my money.

14kphotog Loc: Marietta, Ohio

I'm with you bro.

dwermske

Thats good, cut off your nose to spite your face. Don't buy any more gasoline, diesel fuel, natural gas or propane. Let's see how far you get. At this point, the US economy completely depends on the oil companies. Vitrurally anything made today requires some kind of fuel to manufacture it. There aren't enough hydro-elect plants to supply enough electricity to power US manufacturing, or your homes. Solar technology is still far too expensive and trying to recycle solar panels are currently an environmental nightmare. Just try going a week without spending a dime on anything having to do with the production of oil, the use of oil or the direct effect of oil. Oh ya, I forgot about coal, just another from of oil. If you really hate the oil companies that much then put down your cameras (made from oil) and live like a caveman. Good luck with that.

Jacksonville Loc: Australia

it is the same in Melbourne, Australia.

hj Loc: Florida

Who are you responding to? I saw no post threatening to no longer use oil products!

d2b2 Loc: Catonsville, Maryland, USA