Posted on 05/10/2007 9:18:04 AM PDT by SmithL
It has become almost a regular stop for San Francisco tourists. Once they've seen the Golden Gate Bridge and the Transamerica Pyramid, they can drive down Harrison Street to see the most amazing sight of all.
Regular gas for $4 a gallon.
Actually, it is higher than that. At Bob Oyster's Shell station at Sixth and Harrison, regular is $4.33 a gallon, plus is $4.43, and "V-Power'' is $4.53. Motorists can be seen rolling their eyes as they drive by. Just another example of a greedy station owner, sticking his customers for all they are worth?
Not really.
There's a much deeper story here, and it begins with Oyster, a respected, self-made businessman who turned a single station into Oyster Petroleum, a profitable firm in Redwood City. Oyster is nobody's fool. Don't think he isn't well aware that the Chevron station across the street is selling regular for 70 cents less.
Putting the price way up over $4 a gallon isn't about making a profit. It's about making a statement to a multinational corporation. After Shell forced him to pay higher prices for gas in San Francisco and jacked up his rent, Oyster says, he decided to fight back.
"I got fed up,'' Oyster admits. "It makes a statement, and I guess when people see that price they also see the Shell sign right next to it.''
In fact, far from making a huge profit, Oyster is going out of business. He has operated the Shell station at Sixth and Harrison for 22 years, but he's walking away from it at the end of the month, handing over the keys to Shell officials and expecting them to shut it down.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Gas prices top $4 per gallon on May 1 at the Shell station Bob Oyster operates at Sixth and Harrison (background), while the Chevron station across the street (foreground) is less expensive. On Wednesday, prices at the Shell station were even a few cents higher.
Oh Boy! Even less competition.
Seems to me that he would be just as effective if he priced the gas normally and listed the taxes included in a gallon of gas.
Ask him what “fungible” means.
“In fact, far from making a huge profit, Oyster is going out of business.”
Customers still have CHOICE and don’t have to submit to artificially high price gouging to help “make a statement”.
I could be wrong, but I seem to remember reading that in some states that it's against the law for stations to post the tax amount. Does anyone else know anything about that?
Is Nancy Pelosi going to get him for “gouging”? Or will she thank him for trying to make a big oil company look bad?
The station ‘owner’ made almost nothing on the gas, the price was set by the oil company. The ‘rent’ came out of the sale of gas. The little margin he made went for labor.
The garage part, OTOH, him a mint.
This was in the days before minimarts and just after dinosaurs died.
They're posted here in Colorado (or at least they were the last time I looked). Dunno about other states.
He’s two months early. The monopoly isn’t raising gas prices that high until July.
They don’t post them here in GA. When I was growing up in VA they posted them and when I went to college in MD the posted them there. I just came through VA, NC and SC and didn’t see them posted there either.
I paid $2.94 this morning when I filled up the Suburban...
I wonder what the difference in price could be?
Bird-saving, but people killing blends mandated by liberals?
TAXES mandated by Democrats?
Hmmm?
He’s got a terrible location there; very hard and dangerous to get in and out of, while at the same time also very visable to a large volume of traffic.
I figured anyone who made it in there had to be desperate, or lost.
I paid $3.11 this morning.
Oh sweetheart, you’re not gonna get all emotional on us again, are you? That is, with your un-substantiated allegations and weepy rhetoric?
Speedway in MI has it right on the individual pumps.
Doesn't everybody know it's 9/10 of a penny?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.