Gas station owners like Rob Garrett say they don’t like high gas prices, because it cuts their profit margin and they have to rely on things like car washes and snack food to make a profit, according to USA Today.

Customers often don’t understand that he is a small-business owner, not an extension of “Big Oil.” Garrett owns two stations in Northern Virginia and one in Washington, D.C., under the Sunoco name, and has been in business for nine years.
Lately, he says, he and his employees have been receiving a lot of complaints from customers. Although he tries to explain his situation, people don’t want to hear it.

“We’re the face” of the oil companies, Garrett says. The money the oil companies are making, he says, is “not getting to us.”

Garrett says he makes a profit of about $0.05 a gallon after taxes, credit card fees, etc. There’s always price gouging, but as we learned recently, gouging usually takes place when gas prices fall and gas station owners keep them artificially inflated. —MEGHANN MARCO

Gas profits ‘not getting to us,’ station owner says [USAToday]
(Photo: Ron’s Log)

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