Given all the issues with the oil gusher (it’s not just a “spill”) in the Gulf of Mexico, my first inclination is to boycott BP products. However, when I started thinking about it, I became concerned that my not buying gas at the local BP station wasn’t going to actually affect BP themselves at all, but would only be taking away business from a local businessperson.
Does anyone know how much money goes to the actual gasoline provider when you purchase a certain brand of gasoline, and how much goes to the owner of the station/franchise themselves? Am I doing more harm to my corner station by avoiding them because of the brand of gas they sell?
(Yes, I’m aware that one person boycotting doesn’t do much of anything, but I’d rather not give money to people who are either that unethical or that stupid.)
First…let me see…a company suffers an unfortunate accident that causes problems for a lot of people…and your first inclination is to boycott them? Hope you don’t treat your friends the same way.
Second…many oil companies own their own retail stores. Many of them are franchises. The BP station on the corner near you may or may not be company owned. What’s more likely to be true is that the gasoline that is sold at the BP station was probably not refined by BP. Refining operations and retail operations are very separate business units within large energy companies. Most likely the BP station and every other station in the area where you live by their gasoline from the same gasoline wholesaler, that may source that gasoline from a single refiner in the area or from a pipeline distributor. The only difference between the gasoline at the BP station and the Texaco station across the street will the additives that the individual brands may add to it, so that they can call it their own, otherwise from the same source.
The refiner, the distributor, the wholesaler, the retailer, all make a few cents a gallon along the way to cover their costs and earn a return on their investment.
Well, given the number of violations of safety regulations that are now coming to light, it seems to be a bit more than an “unfortunate accident”. Would be rather like Ford bemoaning the ‘unfortunate accidental fires’ that happen when one of their Pintos is rear-ended.
Is it really an “unfortunate accident” if it was a calculated risk, an expensive but acceptable cost of doing business? It’s not like they took every possible precaution, opting instead for the financially cheaper once-in-a-blue-moon cleanups.
This is more like a rich friend who likes to drive drunk and does because he can afford to pay the fines, the lawyers, and the judges.
for the multitude of gas stations that have mini-marts, the gas sales may be a ‘loss leader’, basically a means of drawing customers to buy other products inside. a station owner near me said he was losing money on each gallon of gas sold recently. he said his profits came mainly from the sale of cigarettes, soft drinks, and lottery tickets.
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You’ve been here long enough to know that changing the text in a quote tag is against the rules (see rule #11here). Saying “fixed it for you” doesn’t make it okay.
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Not sure if it works this way elsewhere, but a FOAF who owns a number of PetroCanada franchises says the pump price is set by PetroCanada (and can vary several times a day based on local market changes), and he gets a fixed amount per litre sold (and it’s not very much). This basically pays the operating costs, and most of the profit comes from the incidentals, such as cigarettes and snacks.
I’ve always been under the impression that the oil you buy at a BP station is not necessarily oil that BP got out of the ground. If everyone stopped going to BP stations, the parent company would lose franchise revenue but would not lose money on its drilling business.
Anyway, the most effective thing is to cut back on oil altogether. Buy an electric or hybrid car and take mass transit as much as possible.
Really? You’re concerned that my choosing to boycott BP is like avoiding my friends because they accidentally hit a pedestrian and killed them? I’m not quite sure how you make that logic leap; but maybe I’m not as good a mental gymnast as you apparently are. :rolleyes:
The above response, on the other hand, is useful information. Thank you.
Agreed. If you don’t buy at the corner BP and buy at the corner Shell instead, as long as the total gallons sold are the same, that would have minimal impact on the upstream part of the business. Oil companies have exchange agreements with other oil companies that compensate for fluctuations in demand.
I’m not sure of how much of BP’s downstream business is owned by them; it may even vary state by state (some states prohibit company ownership of service stations).
The best way to make a difference would be to petition your elected representative or too buy a HUGE chunk of stock and force a change at the annual meeting.
If my friend had a car accident while driving 55MPH in a 30MPH zone, at night with his headlights off, while knowing that his breaks didn’t work, then yes, I would seriously reconsider how much I wanted to associate with him.