In the pizza business, do you have to go half-way around the world, to some Turd World country to look for pizza's (while someone is shooting at you)?
In the pizza business, does the government tell you where you can and can't make pizzas? (as in no drilling in ANWR, off the coast of Florida, CA and many areas out west)
In the pizza business do you have to transport those pizzas in oil lines to the nearest port (while someone is shooting at you)?
In the pizza business, do you have to rent oil tankers (at about $300,000/day) to transport those pizzas half-way around the world (while someone is shooting you)?
Do you have to pay for 'insurance' on those pizzas while they are being transported half-way around the world (while someone is shooting at you)?
Do you have to pay to offload those pizzas at a refinery (ok, so no one is shooting at you anymore)?
In the pizza business, do you have to build deep-water oil platforms, oops, I meant deep-dish pizzas that cost over $1 billion dollars to build, insure, and evacuate it everytime a hurricane is forecast?
Do you have to pay to refine those pizzas to 'local blend' standards (ok, you win on this one--as sometimes anchovies are 'blended' vice sausage and pepperoni)?
In the pizza business, does drilling for dry holes (which can cost millions and millions of dollars) which occur regularly--also increase company risk? (ok, you win on this one too--as sometimes people do NOT pick up their pizzas. But I'll still match the 'dry hole' rate vs. the pizza non-pickup rate ANYDAY)
Do you again have to transport those pizzas hundreds of miles to 'pizza stations' far from those pizza refineries?
In the pizza business, do you have to make risky, long-term decisions and investments based on the constantly fluctuating daily worldwide price of pizzas?
I do like your 'coupon' idea, though. If we can just get rid of the few pesky differences (and there are many, many more) I have mentioned, maybe it just will catch on!!!
Hey, I worked at Exxonmobil. The one decision, even though we knew that the gas is combined often with others upstreams, is that we WON'T EVER buy at an Exxon or Mobil branded gas station.
That's the facts. People that worked there *HATED* it.
Also, when it was a Mobil company, nobody minded buying at the gas stations, and had pride in it. I came in after the merger. The difference in attitude was shocking, and very real. And justified.
Sorry, my point still stands. Exxon and Shell should be competing for my business. They aren't. I am just old enough to remember a time when my Dad would drive into a Texaco and four men would RUN out to greet him, wash his windows, check his oil, tire pressure, and put in four dollars of regular, which would fill the tank.
Something has changed, and I think somebody should be investigating just what that is.