Never. These profit percentages show that, in fact, the oil companies are NOT gouging. Many business make much larger profit margins.
And most people fail to recognize that independently owned gas stations set their own prices, not the oil companies. All over the country you can see the same brand with drastically different prices 20 miles apart. It is not that the oil companies hate Alliance Ohio but like Sebring Ohio, it really is market forces. Which is why prices suddenly dropped to match surrounding areas when a new big gas station started in Alliance Ohio in the past couple months.