RUTLAND, Vt. -- The Stewart's Shop convenience store in Rutland, Vt., has stopped selling gasoline. A spokesperson for the chain told The Rutland Herald that the store stopped selling fuel at that location on June 22 and has removed the underground storage tanks. "There are very high fixed costs on these to maintain the pumps, to improve the pumps and it was a very low-volume [gasoline] shop," Stewart's marketing manager Tom Mailey told the newspaper.
Mailey said the decision took into account the fact that Stewart's has five other shops in the county that sell gasoline. He said this particular [image-nocss] store is situated on a small lot, and the removal of the gas pumps will allow for easier access to the store.
It's not the first time a Stewart's store has "gone gas-less," said the report. The Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based company stopped selling fuel at six stores in the past two years, Mailey said.
Mailey said the high price of gasoline that remains at or above $4 a gallon was not a factor in the decision to stop selling fuel. Because the location has a lot of foot traffic, he said, overall sales at the store are not likely to suffer. "I would say the majority of our people walk there than drive," he said.
Stewart's has 325 stores with 10 stores in Vermont, six of which are in Rutland County. It closed a store in the county in December, the report added. That store posted disappointing sales and was situated on a small lot, making access to the property a persistent problem, the company said at the time of the closing.
Although the company said high retail fuel prices were not a factor in the closing, many small, independent operators have not been so lucky. A growing number has closed their pumps or are contemplating it. Stations are having a hard time making a profit in the face of higher costs of purchasing gasoline, credit-card expenses, consumers who are bargain shopping like never before and for other reasons such as outdated pumps that cost too much to upgrade. Many are going strictly to automotive repairs. Others are closing up shop altogether. (Click here for themost recentinstallment of CSP Daily News' Open & Shut, a periodic roundup of store openings and closings; look for the next installment coming soon.)
Reflecting what appears to be an accelerating trend, the following is a roundup of some of the other stations that have shut off their gasoline pumps in recent months:Ryly's Service Station in Kutztown, Pa., is still open, but the gasoline pumps are closed, reported WFMZ-TV. It is just not profitable anymore to sell fuel, it said, so it shut down the pumps about two weeks ago. Owner Mark Eshbach posted a gasoline prices of $5.95 and $6.99 a gallon "just to deter people from stopping for gas because we simply don't have any." But he said that customers still occasionally pull up looking to refuel. The station is now focusing on automotive services and state inspections. Ryly's has been a fixture in Kutztown since the 1940s.The owners of a gas station in Alamo, Texas, said they can no longer afford to sell gasoline because of high prices. "We're really struggling. We're having a really hard time and everything," Favin Cortez told KRGV-TV. He said that the pumps were responsible for drawing in customers, and since people aren't filling up anymore, they don't come into the store to buy either. Cortez said he has lost almost 30% of his regulars. To keep his customers coming back, Cortez and co-owner Gene Segal have had to make adjustments. They have raised prices of produce to compensate for the lack of fuel sales. They also have lowered other prices and cut corners with payroll. Cortez added that his supplier is demanding up front payment.Haverhill Auto in North Andover, Mass., is no longer selling gasoline, reported The Eagle-Tribune. It stopped selling fuel in mid-May. Jeff Daaboul said independent operators like him are being squeezed by fuel suppliers who want their money before they make a delivery, when in past years they were more flexible and offered delayed payments. "They used to supply us with 10,000 gallons a week and they'd let us to pay later," he said. "We have no big oil company supporting us." It continues to offer oil changes, vehicle inspection stickers and general automotive repairs. Daaboul, 40, has owned Haverhill Auto for about two years.
Also in North Andover, Chip McAllister, owner of the Sutton Street Service Station, phased out gasoline sales in mid-June in favor of automotive service because of steep prices. He estimated that he was losing about $5,000 a month selling gasoline, he told WBZ-TV, and he couldn't keep hiking the price because customers wouldn't come. "We have clients who will drive 20 miles for service and allow us to repair their cars, but they won't drive 20 miles to have their gas tanks full," he said. McAllister said he was pumping half the gallons when he first opened in 1988, and now his costs to pay for the fuel were being driven by a volatile financial market.
Credit-card transaction fees that were eating up fuel profit margins has led Ray's Market in North Mankato, Minn., to take out its gasoline pumps, reported The Mankato Free Press. Store Manager Scott Christnagel said that as gasoline prices rose, the store's profit margin shrank.The market will continue to operate.
Monty McCuiston, owner of Max's 641 CITGO in Murray, Ky., said he will quit selling gasoline because his pumps won't register high enough prices, reported the Associated Press. He said they won't register more than $4 per gallon and the cost to upgrade them "is just too overwhelming." Price increases for gasoline have already slowed his business. McCuiston says his business will still offer minor car repairs, towing and U-Haul rentals. McCuiston's father opened the family business 43 years ago.
Oswald's Sinclair, the last full-service gas station in Idaho Falls, Idaho, shut down its gasoline pumps in late May, according to KIDK-TV. "[When gasoline hit $2 a gallon], I was just able to break even. And as the prices continued to rise, my volume continued to drop, and it's to the point now where I'm losing money and I just can't keep the pumps open," owner Kevin Oswald told the news outlet. Oswald's grandfather, Lavine Crocket, opened the business in 1948. Auto repair will continue: "It's phasing out one aspect of my business, but fortunately, I'm able to phase in another aspect of my business," he said.
After 67 years, the Greene Servicenter gasoline pumps in Wilmington, Vt., displayed "out of order" signs in early June, said The Brattleboro Reformer. Rising gas prices, increased credit-card sales and cost of converting the pumps to ethanol forced the husband and wife who own the garage and gas station to come to a difficult decision: To stop selling gasoline entirely. Competition has driven gas stations to keep their prices as low as possible, said the report, cutting substantially into the small percentage of the retail price of a gallon of gasoline they receive. The profit margin was shrunk even more by the roughly 75-90% of people who pay with credit cards. If a station like that owned by the Greenes gets 10 cents out of each gallon sold and Visa takes 8 cents of that, or American Express takes 16 cents, owners may actually be losing money, Champlain Oil's southern representative Steve Pietryka told the newspaper. He said since last fall, 10 stations have been forced to stop selling gas in the area of Vermont, New Hampshire and part of New York. The couple will still need to come up with the money to take out the pumps and tanks. The location will continue to operate as a garage.
Sierra Service Center has "corked" its pumps in late May to keep gasoline from guzzling profits, reported The Sierra Vista (Ariz.) Herald. "We all know too well gas prices have reached unbelievable levels" it said in a letter to customers posted at the pumps. Owner Jimmy Harlan will continue automotive service and food mart sales. Usually, seasonal "cycles" have allowed gasoline retailers to borrow from higher profit margins times for low profit times, but oil now seems to be on "a neverending upward trend," he said. A year ago, Harlan paid about $20,000 for a load, or 8,600 gallons of gasoline. Now it's up to $32,000, he said. A reasonable profit now might be about 5 to 6% for him, but lately, he was not even close, said the report.Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.