As complete a breakdown on the economics of gas from a pump upstate. With a nice tag included.
Click on the image for a larger version or go after the jump below to see the transcription.
Crude oil costs have almost doubled in the past year, and Middle East tensions, OPEC, refinery problems, and speculators have caused the cost of gas to go up and down as much as 10 cents in a single day.
Retailers of gas only make about 5% gross profit, or around 15 cents per gallon. That is used to pay for labor, loss, equipment, maintenance, and credit cards. (Cards cost retailers, and therefore customers, about 5 cents / gal.) This leaves the retailer with about 1% net profit.
Many costumers will spend 5 or 10 minutes to go 1 mile out of their way to save 2 cents/gal x 10 gallons purchased, or 20 cents. In this mile, they use $3.20/gal gas / 16 miles per gallon, or 20 cents. There are few places where we let less than a 1% price difference drive our decisions. You may or may not save any money, but what’s your time worth?
With these wild and crazy prices, are we all getting crazier?????
Tags: cool