Doom and Gloom!

I have been hording when I can but I also have been looking at garage and yard sales and picking up gold and silver watch bands sometimes at a buck apiece , I am also saving low grade boards for the winter now that I have a place that takes them.

Originally Posted by bigburtchino

I may be wrong (certainly won't be a first), but I think most gas stations daily pump prices are based on what they would pay to replace that fuel at that days wholesale price. Prices actually can change a couple times a day, depending on market conditions. Same thing with this business, the metal commodities market changes constantly. The markets and other factoring conditions (supply, demand, transportation, location, etc.) drives scrap prices and for that matter almost all goods and services.

It seems to vary Bert. Back when i was first starting out i worked as a company floater for a mid sized oil company based in Massachusetts. They had an oil tank farm & 120 gas stations in the New England area. I used to cover six stations in the greater Boston area.

One of the things we did on a fairly regular basis was to go out and survey the other gas stations in the area. They were careful to keep their prices on-par or just slightly below what the other guys were charging. It was a very competitive market because you had many different oil companies vying for the customer base. A difference of one or two pennies a gallon was a big deal back then.

Things have changed a lot over the last 30 years. If you wanted a" personal opinion", i would say that on some level the leaders of the oil companies evolved and realized that it wasn't in their best interest, -or- the interest of the public they serve, to be fighting over territory. Perhaps at some point there was a meeting of the lions (so to speak) and they divided up territories based on who was set up to serve that region of the country most efficiently. As long as everyone involved maintains moral integrity it's a win/win/win all the way around. When you think about it .... it's senseless for an oil company based 2000 miles away to refine & transport fuel to a region when one based within 500 miles could do the job just as well or better ?

From what i'm seeing these days, in this area, the pricing seems to be based on the load. My wife is a shareholder in an employee based co-operative, that among other things, owns a thriving gas station. From talking with her and some of the insiders in this area the pattern seems to be that price changes at the pump happen on the day that the load is delivered.

If you consistently score a profit on each load you know you're doing well. It's a simple way of figuring things

If you suffer a loss on a load here and there you could average it across a number of loads and still come out a winner.

If you're consistently suffering a long term net loss in the hopes that someday things will get better then maybe it's time to step back and re-think what you're doing.

Passion, hard work, and a love of what you're doing, will help you succeed where others have failed but at the end of the day it's all about the numbers.

Some folks will throw in the towel too early, some will change and adapt, some will steadfastly refuse to quit and hold on too long.

~ It's all a judgement call. ~