In all my years I’ve seen businesses come and go, but I can only recall seeing one gas station that was closed down, and even then I never saw it go out of business; it was shuttered and abandoned when I moved in nearby. Whats up with that? Is this a real phenomenon, or is it just some kind of selection bias at work? I don’t think running a service station is enormously profitable so the only thing I can think of is that the barriers to entry are so high (cost of tanks, pumps, etc) that these stations are only opened in locations where some profitability is likely; and they are less likely to close during unprofitable times because of the sunk costs of the infrastructure. Whats the straight dope?
Of coursde they do – I’ve seen plenty of them. There are several around where I now work.
In one sense, the gas station is virtually extinct - replaced by “convenience stores” which derive profits by selling things other than petroleum products.
In what way is shuttered and abandoned different from out of business?
Several of our local Mobil stations closed down a few months ago. This was due to corporate cutbacks, but it now stands forlorn and dark.
Before that, an independent gas station not far away went out business due to failure to pay taxes (and lottery fees – the owner evidently pocketed everything). It was closed for about ten years. Someone tried a second time and also failed. Finally, Citgo came in and is doing OK (probably why the Mobil closed).
… maybe they’re selling shutters now?
We have all sorts of refurbished gas stations here–they get turned into bike shops, coffee shops, sub shops… all sorts of things. Big, sturdy, simple buildings with big windows and large parking lots. What’s not to love?
If the OP is wondering why the corner gas station wasn’t immediately replaced by a Starbucks: http://www.nemw.org/recyclegas_stations.pdf
Perhaps the distinction EL was making might be clearer with bolding:
“… even then I never saw it go out of business; it was [already] shuttered and abandoned when I moved in…”
Translation: “I’ve never seen a gas station actually ‘die’; all I’ve seen are the carcasses of already-‘dead’ ones.”
And yes, they will close down for the same market reasons as any other business: not enough gross income to cover the cost of doing business and turn a respectable net income. It’s particularly common in two quite variant circumstances: (1) an “independent” selling gasoline bought from a regional distributor rather than affiliated with a major brand name, therefore completely “on its own” as far as supply, profitability, etc. are concerned; (2) stations affiliated with a major brand that decides to stop sales within a marginal region. When I was a small child, Atlantic (now ARCO) and Cities Service (CITGO) were fairly common in upstate New York; both apparently pulled out by the time I reached my young adult years.
I see plenty of no-longer-functional gas stations when I’m driving on the Interstate - mostly along frontage roads / old main roads that the interstate replaced. Usually they have the 50s-70s setup with the tiny concrete “island” about 12 feet away from the main store, sometimes with a canopy covering that one section.
These got closed because the increase in Interstate traffic meant that it was no longer worthwhile to upgrade them, and they needed to be upgraded because:
– Cars were too reliable and complicated to get much money from repairing them there
– Customers expected convenience stores and the “main store” section wasn’t big enough,
and finally, the death knell of them in the 90s:
– The prevalence of huge SUVs meant that multiple numbers of cars can no longer fit between the island and the store.
When my wife worked at Chevron, she wrote this huge program that analyzed all of these factors to determine when the breakeven point was for any given older-style gas station to profit from getting “upgraded” to the newer style; “upgrading” means razing it and starting over again. My mom got amusedly pissed because her favorite gas station got turned into a vacant lot overnight by my wife’s program. The really funny thing is they put up a sign saying “Closed for remodeling” and it’s sitting in the middle of an empty, muddy lot…
Yes, that must be it. Thanks.
It’s not dead: it’s pinin’ for the Fords.
Sure, there are several of them around town. An Exxon station near our house has spent more time closed down than operating in the 8 1/2 years we’ve lived here. Another Exxon downtown was built on a busy street corner that makes it really hard to get into or out of the place. It’s been closed and reopened at least 5 times that I know about. It’s now a Goodwill store.
An Exxon station on I-10 east blowed up real good about six years ago. The building burnt to a crisp, along with the attached stores. The charred remains are still there after all this time. I don’t know why… it was a convenient place to get off the highway, fill up and eat and get some crappy souvenirs. You’d think someone was losing money on it, just tying up that property with uncleared debris, but it apparently is not troubling anybody.
Plenty! My parents live right on the British-Irish border (Northern Irish side) and in the years since exchange rates and taxes have changed to make Irish sold fuel cheaper, all but IIRC one station in the town have closed down and many more along the border.
A gas station closed in my old neighborhood several years ago. I knew the owner so I asked him what was up. He said that several years ago, a federal law was passed that required all underground fuel tanks to be replaced with a new, modern kind of tank that was less likely to leak. The tanks had to be replaced by the end of 1998, but as the deadline approached, many independent operators decided to close rather than pay the expense of that tank replacement.
(best cite I could find… )
I also imagine it’s rather expensive to rehabilitate a closed gas station. It’s not as simple as leveling it and putting up a new building. While they don’t go out of business that often, the carcass can stay around for years, decades, without being dealt with. If you get a bad soil sample, it’s probably easier to just go bankrupt and leave the parcel abandoned rather than clean up the soil and rebuild.
Yes, they certainly do. My aunt owned one which went under due to mismanagement.
In NJ, I’ve seen them leveled and then just left. Just an expanse of concrete on a corner. Clearly some environmental work needs to be done to build anything else.
We also had a local one that went out of business for five years or so. Then just recently someone else came in and rehabbed the building and put in all new tanks and pumps. I guess it was a good location after all.
The “environmental work” that has to be consists of draining undergroiund gasoline tanks and filling them with sand. It’s specialized, expensive work that has to be done prior to selling the property. It has to be verified, guaranteed, and passed by the EPAl
My office has been stung twice with this chore. We hate it.
Years and years and years. I saw a gas station off I-20 (in Lousiania, I think, or Alabama) last summer that still had a posted price on their display of 56.9 cents/gallon. That baby’s been closed for a long, long, long time.