quote:
Which product sells quite a bit that you really don't make much on? (Other than gas, how much do you make on a gallon?)

Which product do you no longer carry because it was terrible?

Also, reaction to this article on PM? LINK

How do you decide how much of each product you have on hand?

Do you sell cases of diet mt. dew? It drives me crazy when I can't find those in a gas station.

1.Gas is a funny game, it's all about location. I own 3 stores in bad neighborhoods where we make .08-.10 a gallon....and that's before CC fees, but we have to in order to compete with other stores(some are company owned) so with those they make a little more bc they own the jobber(gas delivery) so they make a little more but they make it tough to compete, so we lower prices to get people to come and hope they spend money in the store. I own a store at a super busy intersection and I make .20-.25 a gallon there, so it's all relative.

2.Lowest margin? Probably cigarettes, you make almost nothing percentage wise but in true profit its high, close to $1/pack. Some packs you get rebates from the manufacturer so it's a little more. Lottery sucks arse, 5% and they force you to buy high dollar tickets to get the cheap ones.I honestly wish I didn't have to participate in lottery, other than the days the jackpot is massive and we sell thousands of tickets its just a pain to deal with scratch-offs and they tie up your capital senselessly. I probably have $40K in scratch-offs in my 4 stores combined and they generate 5%/ticket....and we don't sell that much

3.I don't have diet mt dew bc that comes from a vendor where your margins are cut, I buy all my sodas/candy myself from sams club bc I save a good 30-40% and since I live around the corner from a sams club its easy to get an email everynight and pick up everything in the mornings since I have to go there to get the cigarettes anyways.

4.Don't read negative articles on PM, its a joke, altria/pm is the best performing stock of all time and that includes years of "smoking is on the decline" and the gigantic master settlement altria had to pay the united states every year still. They spun off PM bc there was no sense in the United States tobacco settlement hurting the company. Smoking rates are not declining whatsoever but some governments like the phillipines cranked up taxes on smokers last quarter which hurt shipments but higher taxes never stopped smokers here and as they adjust Im sure they will go back to smoking in other countries as well......its an addiction, its every hard to stop.

PM has a giant share buyback like $18B i think over 3 years which will reduce shares this will increase earnings. Live I've said before Im seeing more and more people choosing generic soda at my stores over name brands, so PM/MO is one of the few name brands not affected when customers start trying to save money, their cigarettes cannot be faked. PM owns 7 of the 15 top selling brands in the world, they have the market covered from high end to low end smokes.

Carlos Slim Helu the richest man in the world used to be on the board of the old altria when it was on its dominant tear and after it sell hard in the late 90's I read a piece on him buying a ton so i bought what i could at the time and it worked out very well.......today he is on the board of PM.