Thursday: Deficit

Deficit:

A lack, or shortage.

A noun that could allude to our governemnt, our personal bank accounts, to the economy in general. A deficit has, indirectly, given me a subject to photograph. All across our country, hundreds of gas stations are closing down. A shortage of customers, a lack of money, you name it; owners are filling the same pinch as the consumer.

Consider this: the gas stations have to fill their tanks before you can fill yours. The cost of buying 9,000 gallons of wholesale gasoline has jumped 26 percent to $27,432 since 2006, according to the Oil Price Information Service. That's quite a chunk of money the owner has to front.

Station owners typically mark up gas prices between 8 and 12 cents per gallon, regardless of the market prices. As the market prices increase, the owner profit would remain the same, except for one catch: credit card sales. The credit card companies generally charge a fee between 2 and 3 percent of total card sales. This means that has the gas prices increase, the station ownders profit actually decreases. With household budgets becoming leaner, customers are increasingly using credit where they once spent cash. Bill Douglass, CEO of Douglass Distributing Co. in Sherman, Texas, explains that "the average gas station makes 1.5 cents per gallon and sells 4,000 gallons of gas a day.This means we generate about $60 in profit per day at the pump," Douglass said. So what does this mean for many filling stations? They're in the red.

Hancock, Laura. "Record Oil Company Earnings Haven't Trickled Down to Gas Stations." DESERET NEWS 5/11/2008 11 Sep 2008 . http://www.oilwatchdog.org/articles/?storyId=20166

Levenson, Michael. "Tanks, but no thanks: Gas Station Owners driven off." Boston Globe 06/22/2008 11 Sep 2008 http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_9667776.