re: Owning a gas station...how much money is there in it?

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A Circle K will do 20k a day just in inside sales.

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sales =/= profit

i know of a few people that make more than .15 cents a gallon and up to .30cents a gallon. it all depends on where the store is.

people should quit talking unless you know of something for sure.

quote:

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and 5% of $3.50 is what.........




that's right, about $.17/gallon

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You lose nearly 3% of that considering everyone uses debit and credit cards to pay for gas.

I made very little on fuel mostly because of credit cards. I would always mark my fuel up just to cover gateway and processing fees so I could get people in the door. That was unless I had bought cheap one day and the market increased the next day enabling me to raise prices. What sucks is when the reverse happens and you are sitting on thousands of gallons of fuel you either have to take a small loss on or hope the market price comes back around quick. There were many dead days in my store when I was higher than places down the road due to this.

My gas station had a full kitchen which is where I made most of my money. Hot box food and fountain drinks are the biggest money makers. Candy, chips, bottled drinks etc aren't as profitable but you will sell a lot of it. Lay's chips sets your price for you and you make .25 cents per bag for example.

Tobacco isn't as profitable as one would think unless you are moving enough volume to get the monthly discount checks they offer. In fact some places sell tobacco products to make maybe .25 cents at the time of sell just to move more volume in hopes of qualifying for the discount check.

ETA: The only way for a mom and pop to make it is for one to join a buying group so you qualify for the multi store discounts from Coca Cola, Phillip Morris, etc