I've heard it's long hours. Some headaches like making sure that your station is safe for employees to work at late at night. Your profits will come from the extra stuff customers buy inside your store when they buy their gas like pop, chips, gum, etc. If you can find a great spot with little competition around it you can make a killing but don't expect it to be a cake walk. It's a cutthroat business.
As stated, selling gas won't make you any money (You will be lucky to even be profitable on that). Its just a way to upsell other stuff like Lottery tickets, food, and service (if you have a Garage attached) Im curious why you would choose that business out of all the profitable ones out there?
See, I've heard that having a lottery booth in a good, well-travelled location can be very profitable for the owner. Foot traffic is the key, like along the path of a bus route, in a mall, shopping center, etc. That may be a cheaper and better business for the original poster to look into.
out here in india owning a gas station is very profitable thing indeed cause of the malpractices involved. Marketing strategy, get girl in skimpy dresses to help your customers in filling gas
Espically if someone hits the lottery and they bought the ticket at your store. You will see like a 50k check.
I think there is money to be made in selling gas because the gas is suppied by the companioes that are involved in gas exploration. A gas station business gets a small percentage of the sale price but does not hold its own stock. So the risk factor is quite low.
here in the UK, adsa (2nd? biggest supermarket) makes less than 2 or 3p per litre sold, so selling petrol here isnt particularly profitable,after factoring costs of collecting payment from credit cards, employee wages, etc...like others said, its the upsell that you need to concentrate on
a couple of links I quickly found.. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2002/08/11/stories/2002081101320100.htm http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=23115&vf=1
I can tell you here in the UK lots of the privately run petrol (gas) stations are closing down, because the land is worth more than they can make off it. Not sure what it's like in the USA, but it looks like you'll need to put a lot of hard work in.
Well, they must be making something or else they wouldn't sell it. Why would they go through the hassle of selling it for those big multinationals if they are going to make a loss?
Like its been said, they make money on people buying something other then gas like windshield washer fluid, oil, aitr freshners, snacks etc etc Huh? The risk factor of what? I doubt the OP is talking about drilling for oil himself. The risk factor of going bankrupt is even higher for "resellers" as there is next to no profit (A few pennies on the dollar BEFORE expenses if you are lucky)
You need to look for advice from those who have already run not from those who know theory. I can rant out all the theory I know, I worked at one during my college days so know a little bit too. But the feeling was, go there, work there, make some cash to pay for tuition and done. I never felt the pressures of gas pump failing, parking lot not clean, less coffee sales for the day, etc..
My father owned and operated two Hess Stations.. Believe me, That business is a lot of work, a lot of volume, but little profit. You sell ten thousand dollars worth of gas a day, and see VERY little profit from it. The margins are terrible....
Get ready to invest on ALOT of headache medicen. If your planning to run your own small gastation that isnt affiliated with any large corporation such as B.P. or whatnot then alos get ready for very slooooooooooow bussiness. People dont seem to buy their gas from just any one these days as cars get more expensive to run people would rather pay the few extra cents and get a brand of gasoline they trust and know rather then to go to just any gas station. Of course there is also always the price war. How much is your gasoline going to be? and then government regulations ect ect. If you want your own store of some sort i would stay away from the gasoline bussiness and find somthing eles to invest it. With all this stuff about oil prices and the war in iraq still active your going to be pushing a mountain up a hill. I wouls definatly go with another store and forget about a gas station.