Owning a Petrol Station,

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petermcg, Aug 11, 1:49am
Who knows how much markup there is on fuel,I know its not much, what other things can you sell to provide a bit income,to offset this, if you own a Petrol Station.

sterid01, Aug 11, 1:54am
My local garage sells home brew .

kazbanz, Aug 11, 1:59am
the basic way now is to be a open late local dairy. no fan belts in sight

clark20, Aug 11, 2:02am
I thought they made about 3c a L, but make more on Oil and food etc.

I can buy a whitakers slab for 90c in bulk, $2.50 at station

raymond00001, Aug 11, 2:04am
You can make a fortune on the coffee. The que caused by customers waiting for your staff to make some fancy latte means less wear and tear on your expensive fuel pump equipment too.

pugmyre, Aug 11, 2:13am
The one I had in Wellington in the early 80's, had to sell $1,000-00 at about $70-00 profit.There is no money in gas alone.Oil was around 100% Mark Up.Most of the revenue came from Servicing and Repairs etc.That's why today if you get a $40-00 Drive Off your profit is history.In three and a half years in Wellington, never had one Drive Off in that time.

elect70, Aug 11, 5:32am
Sellpaint stripper coffee& warmpies& dried up sandwichesas well, works forWild Bean cafes .

mrfxit, Aug 11, 6:04am
Can't really say that it's changed these days.
Drive off's are way worse, sometimes with damage to the pumps/hoses etc.
Shop lifting is pretty bad.
Franchise restrictions are moronic

jason18, Aug 11, 6:34am
Yeah the coffee seems to work for BP!

studio1, Aug 11, 6:45am
Easy way to stop drive-offs - put the pumps on pre-pay. Drawback - it pisses people off when they have to walk in to pay, or ask for the pump to be opened so they can fill up, then have to walk back in again to pay for it.
Solution - put EFTPOS at the pump, like MOBIL used to have. Was brilliant. No need to go inside at all then, and does away with drive-offs.
Why MOBIL took the EFTPOS at the pump away beats me. Best thing they ever had.
I don't understand why other servos haven't embraced the idea.

jmma, Aug 11, 6:51am
Need people to go into the shop and buy a choccy (o:

aragorn2003, Aug 11, 6:56am
Bingo

gammelvind, Aug 11, 6:57am
It was brilliant, but they kept crapping out, guess thats why they removed them. Probably lack of maintenance, then again Mobil stations generally look pretty rough these days, kinda wonder if they are looking at closing their retail outlets.

smac, Aug 11, 8:36am
PaknSave have perfectly functioning pre-pay machines (and are BP, right!) - no reason at all the other places can't either. Both are making money by getting you in their grocery store/cafe. There is no body making money just off petrol.

mrfxit, Aug 11, 8:57am
The self service Gull stations work fine

cowlover, Aug 11, 9:10am
There are a few fuel stop type setups doted about the country.Must be worth the oil coys while to put them in and in effect they are taking a customer from the normal retail station.In some cases the price is lower as well prob due to lack of overheads.Fuel coy are only people making a profit out of petrol sales.

chris_051, Aug 11, 9:27am
There is no reason why a pay at the pump wouldn't work. Truck stops have been using thme for years at all the brands with no worries. Nothing worse than queing in line behind people buying half the shop when all you want to do is pay for gas.

typhoon666, Aug 11, 10:05am
The gull one at ti rakau drive has a unmaned station all prepay at the pump.Works sweet and the gas is cheap as they dont have to pay any staff.

purple666, Aug 11, 10:13am
My brother uses the one in Merivale, Tauranga and says the same thing, never has a problem.

smac, Aug 11, 9:53pm
The Gull ones are there to build brand loyalty/awareness. Would be keen to hear from anyone in the know whether they actually operate at a profit.

supernova2, Aug 11, 10:12pm
Bet they do.Remember these are owned by the fuel coys so they getting retail price for something they would normally only get the wholesale price for.Only overhaed is site cost and a bit of power.No wages, no ACC, no security, no banking etc etc etc.And probably more important no drive offs and no armed robberies.

db.price, Aug 11, 10:12pm
My parents owned one back in the 80s before deregulation. They made around 8c a litre then but now it is around 2-3c a litre.

The only way service stations (can we actually call them that now!) make money is on the stuff they sell inside.Basically you need to look at a SS as a dairy - that also supplies fuel.

If I was looking for a business I would not want to sink my money into a Service station.

db.price, Aug 11, 10:13pm
The number of drive offs would be significantly reduced is the staff actually came out to serve the customers

franc123, Aug 11, 11:37pm
And thats precisely why EFTPOS at pump was pulled out of most of them, that only works at unmanned stations. You are right they are now dairies/cafes that happen to also sell fuels, they have to be sadly. Service station operators and their customers seemed to be a hell of a lot happier back in those days when they had a bit more freedom with their premises, customers could not only get fuel and oil but tyres, thatpuncture on your trailer fixed, WOF's, a whole array of car parts, and genuine service in the form of an overalled guy crawling out from under that Morry or Viva that he was working on to fit that radiator cap or wiper blades or fan belt you just bought, or even a spur of the moment grease and oil if he wasn't busy and you asked nicely enough.

bitsy_boffin, Aug 12, 12:10am
Need to stop drive offs!Barrier arm on the exit would be better than pre-pay if you ask me.

Activated manually from inside (same as pumps are), or even automatically by number plate recognition (plate recorded when paid, then when you approach the barrier it's read and lets you through).