I suspect the money is in *being* Exxon/Mobil, not pumping the product.

Not to defend the evil bastards…..

“Not to defend the evil bastards…..”

Gas stations make less money as the price of crude goes up - back when it was $.90/gallon, they were making a killing. Nowadays, most of them only turn a profit from the attached convenience store.

Lets see. I can imagine that if a small town had 4 Jamba Juice stores and they all had $4.00 jumbo sized Peach Pleasure drinks, how much would that $4 increase to if one of those Jamba Juice locations closed out? Or hmm…maybe 3 stores closing out? Would the remaining Jamba Juice store still maintain that $4.00 price despite being the only store in the town? Or would they start charging whatever they want because there isn’t another Jamba Juice location for customers to go to, thus giving this single store an advantage? I smell shinannigans (sp)… then again, i’m not surprised, it’s an oil company after all.

Closing store locations because they’re not making any money? Liars till proven truthful — and that’ll never happen…well, at least they’re honest about how much they’re making…

Yes, it’s just you.

What’s the big deal? They’re not claiming poverty and even if they were they’re not suggesting it’s your problem. They’re just saying retail gas is a competitive business and they’re getting out of it…so what?

BTW cnn.com is linking to this blog so expect lots of newcomers.

I think that most major companies became major companies because the moves they make now are not only for the present, but for what they foresee happening down the line. Yes, if you close store nos. 2, 3 and 4, store #1 will stand to gain. Yes, maybe the name “ExxonMobil” is enough to generate revenue. Yes, there is a short-term advantage for the company in this decision: but you can count on there being a long-term advantage for it as well. And I am truly sorry to say that it isn’t for any one of us, unless some of their annual profit reports bears our name as a shareholder. If we take this report at face value, and think that there is not profit to be made in the retail sale of gas, then I think there is still a bridge in New York for sale. We must always ask “why?”. Why is $41 billion not enough of a profit? What about the lubricant and other petroleum products? What will they do with those divisions? And what do they foresee happening in the market that the average consumer does not or cannot? We musn’t just click on the next article, we must ask why because if we don’t, when gas is at $7.00/gal. we’ll ask ourselves then “Why???”

Threehams is right, the oil companies make roughly 10% profit margin from the stations vs around 3 times that much for production. Blame the short sighted politicians and car companies. Instead of investing enough resources in innovative technologies, they have been ensuring the manufacture of the same junk for the past 20 years. Anyone alive in the 70s should remember how we were supposed to be out of oil by now. We should be leading the world and shocking them with innovation. Instead we focus on how many cup holders can fit in a mini van. Check out this story of the death of the electric car

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/223/#here

it’s because the profits aren’t in the gas stations, it’s in the production and refinery. they are selling the stations, so someone else can struggle to make any profit, while ExxonMobile sells them the gas

Hi everyone,
Thanks so much for your comments and for sharing your thoughts. It is appreciated.

It makes one wonder? Why would anyone one want to purchase one of these stations? :-{

“BTW cnn.com is linking to this blog so expect lots of newcomers.”
—————————————————————————-
Geeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ***

What many don’t realize is that a little over five years ago, Mobil, and I assume Exxon, forced all independent stations it supplied gas to, to purchase their gas elsewhere and to stop using their logo and name. That was, supposedly, to improve profits but it cost a lot of independent dealers a hefty amount to make that transition. I don’t believe it can be profitable to sell just gas anymore because of the tight market. I would not even want to do business with an organization that would leave its vendors hanging in such a way.

Hi Larry,
Interesting. I didn’t know that. It makes sense why so many gas stations also house a convenience store as well.

The profit for a 6 pk of Bud is most likely more than the profit for a tank of gas.

Notice the headline - Selling 2200 stations NOT closing!!

They cannot make money selling there so they leave. Nothing different about that, happens everyday in businesses big and small around the country. Can’t fault them for that.

However they are going to pass the profit loss onto someone else. Let some small company or person loose money - oh and by the way as part of the agreement to purchase the money loosing business that we cannot make money on by selling our own product we are going to make you the new owner try to make money and you have to buy from us. As the article implies don’t worry customers we will ensure you can still get our products at these stations. It just won’t be us loosing money here!

How does the next guy make money? He works it himself - long hours. He pays his workers less in $$ and/or benefits (if either can get any lower!?!?) or finds some other business model to “stick on to it” that is more profitable and fits in with a spot people come to on a fairly regular basis.

Don’t know if I would buy into a business “big business” cannot make work.

All I know is this. I personally know a convenience store /gas station owner. He only owns one store and it is family run. Until 6 years ago, he sold convenience products only and held a license to not sell just beer and wine, but liquor as well. 6 Years ago, he decided to “switch gears” and do away with the liquor portion of his business and take up with the gas station portion, because as we all know, if you carry liquor to your car, drop the bottle on some residual gas, you’ll be mighty crispy. To this day, he claims that it was the worst decision he ever made. He said his business has suffered ever since, and his profits have become lower and lower and lower. He claims it to be a double edged sword. People who can still afford to stop and buy a bottle of liquor in his store, might also pick up a few other items he makes maybe 400% profit on. Someone coming in to pay for gas at $4.16 a gallon, probably doesn’t have a dime left in their pocket and his profit margin is terribly lower. He claims his contract with one of the large gas companies doesn’t allow a small timer to get out of their contract with them for quite some time, and he is still trying to make up the money he spent renovating to have the pumps installed. He also claims that when push comes to shove in this economy, he may actually have to hire security guards to guard the pumps at night, because his store is not open 24 hours. Just a different perspective on your conversation.

Hello Kevin and Dawn,
Thanks to you both for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us. It is appreciated.

Regards, Ron

no, no, no. i hate this. i hate it so much. nobody should EVER, EVER pity a gas company, they make billions, so if anyone even tries to defend them… well… ARGH!@#@

Exxon-Mobil is worried that the gas stations profits will go down, so they are selling while they can. They are worried that the future is with electric cars that gas stations’ profits will go down. Once this is common knowledge, people won’t want to buy gas stations, but right now, Exxon-Mobil can sell them for good prices and instead keep on with their other business, which will continue to bring in profits.

Are these stations owned by franchise dealers or by Exxon??
Whatever the reasons (I agree with all previous commenters), can we impeach all of Congress….they are worried about their party’s well being, not the peoples’…Why do we have presidential candidates whose platforms are still questionable and only seem to address racial issues….our government should not be run for racial issues…but for all legal american citizens… You don’t make $1500/second if you’re not over-charging….why did Detroit eliminate the electric car?? Thank the Lord that the foreign car manufacturers aren’t in bed with Congress or Big Oil…