What seems out of line to me is EOM's profit increasing by 75%. This profit is clearly larger than what would be derived from merely passing along the increased cost of their crude oil. It would appear that they were already making a healthy profit on their products.
It is interesting the article's comparison of EOM's profit to that of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart became the biggest by moving their product to the consumer at the lowest possible price, EOM and the other oil giants did so, by doing just the opposite.
It is capitalism, and legal to do so, and no doubt you will say that on this matter I am out of line. Without a doubt their profits will go down after their high prices have slowed the economy and demand for their product. So all things equal out in the end. I just hope that my business which is suffering from their high profits, (we ship primarily by truck), will still be around to take advantage of those lower prices when they come. And no, I don't make buggy whips.
Their profit is less than 10% for 3rd quarter. When the biased liberal media plays games in reporting the numbers, you should not assume the the worse.
Do you believe that <10% is a indication of taking advantage of the consumer? How low a profit margin would you operate a business, especially in a high risk area. Go look up oil prices in 1998.