Thread: Interesting Observation

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The vast majority of the fuel stations all over the country are run by independent operators who control their own pricing, it is not, in fact cannot, be mandated by the supplier. In fact it's entirely possible there aren't any company run stations anywhere in the country. The supplier charges them for the fuel delivered, the operator marks it up. I suppose in the scenario you laid out that BP is charging more at the wholesale level, and the operators are trying to maintain a fixed margin, but that's not effective marketing. One way to perhaps verify if BP is the "culprit" is to see what's going on at AM/PM or Arco stations if you have them, they're also BP.

As for "most avoiding their stations" that's not really very effective either. Again, if folks are mad at BP they're taking it out on the local dealer, not the company, especially if they haven't changed their buying habits. If the total market buys, let's say 1 million gallons a day, and they cut the BP stations out of the selling loop, the area still needs a million gallons a day. The other suppliers aren't set up to take up as much "slack" for what had been going through the BP stations, so how do they get the extra fuel requirement? Yup, they go to the BP rack and buy the fuel from BP to sell through their stations. Not a very effective boycott I'm afraid. But it does hurt the local business guy.