[Dion]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Running a filling station is a license to print money. Zip in, fill up, pay the minimum wage cashier.

A friend of the family who owns thier indipendant station pays well above minimum wage and offers bonuses to his staff at the end of the year. He does it because he likes to keep his staff and values their efforts in generating profits.

There's not a lot of overhead here. KId sitting at a cashier window. Long past are the days of trusting your car to The Man With The Star™. "Service" is a farce.

So paying someone to manage your books is not a lot of overhead?

How about the people he has running his in store bakery or his deli?

Or the people he pays to manage the place when him and his wife are at thier place in Arizona playing golf for the month of November?

And I don't think a lot of consumers bother with convenience items. Hell, you don't even have to walk in anymore. Whip out the card and pay at the pump. A little beep, and off you go -- no human interaction and more importantly no potato chip purchase.

When construction was going in Douglasdale and nearby communities, workers were lined up out side his store to buy pizza, hamburgers etc from his deli during the lunch hour. Then there's his bakery where they make frresh bread, rolls, etc.

If these places aren't in the business of selling fuel, they're doing a piss-poor job of selling anything else.

You still haven't explained to me how my friend is making his cut when Esso sets the price for the gas he buys to put in his tanks?

If he undercuts the corporate stations he loses money.