Personal Anyone with any experience running a gas station or mini mart?
- Thread starter sparkuri
- Start date
I grew up with a bunch of street shitters and their families owned motels and gas stations. They were Patels. I knew 3 Amit Patels in middle school. It was a lot of work, but hotels and gas stations were open 24x7. Their cousins from India would come over to go to school and work there. The ones fresh off the boat usually get the night shift.
If you could limit the hours and you have a large enough family, it might be worth the hassle, depending on the location. What type of clientele are we talking?
If you could limit the hours and you have a large enough family, it might be worth the hassle, depending on the location. What type of clientele are we talking?
I'm in the middle of nowhere pretty much but it's an airbnb type place where everybody comes for fishing and hunting.
There's no gas for 15 minutes 1 way or the other.
I want to buy this place that was a gallery and a wedding venue and a restaurant at 1 time that was popping on Friday night, it's 55 acres.
I could do a s*** ton with this property
You’re going to build it and try to compete with the multiple franchises that will just surround you if you find success, which will be a long, long battle?
Multi purpose.
Ok, 5-10 rv spots.
3 long haul trucker parking
Wedding venue(already established)
Restaurant (already established)
On state highway
Gas station
Mini mart
YUGE backfield, want to establish a North Arkansas pyrotechnics association (NAPA), closest one is 300 miles away.
This will serve as a Seasonal fireworks hub between little rock & st.louis/K.C.
No CCR's.
7 minutes to WORLD CLASS fishing.
May-October biker/Porsche run.
Farm-to-table EVERYTHING.
Deer, beef roadkill.
Also, bad health area, so....
Alternative medicine Restaurant (keto, alt. Medicine, local sourced farm meds, bowen/nucca therapy)
An exes parents ran the only little grocery store for 30 miles in any direction. Tiny little town, her graduating class was like 30 people.
It was a 6 days a week, 12+hrs a day. Her dad rarely saw her play an away game her whole life.
There was also a butcher shop (he was trained) that was really good. He told me that he made all his money processing game during hunting season, that's what kept the place afloat. The store barely broke even m9st months. They were far from wealthy and worked all the time.
It was a 6 days a week, 12+hrs a day. Her dad rarely saw her play an away game her whole life.
There was also a butcher shop (he was trained) that was really good. He told me that he made all his money processing game during hunting season, that's what kept the place afloat. The store barely broke even m9st months. They were far from wealthy and worked all the time.
I feel like a gas station would be a great thing to own, but a horrible thing to run.
Super-long hours. Dealing wtih ever-changing fuel prices. Dealing with multiple types of vendors / deliveries from fuel to milk to soda to chips/snacks to other food items & sundries. I imagine you likely gotta have some kinda permits or licensing to sell beer / wine / alcohol, as well as tobacco, lottery tickets, etc.
Between gas, lottery tickets, booze, tobacco, propane (since many sell that, too), checking ID, etc, there has to be never-ending regulatory bullshit & red tape.
I can only imagine what it's like dealing with theft & loss prevention.
Like I said - if you owned one & had a team running it for you so you could be hands off, that'd be one thing. It being a small business that you run yourself? Sounds like a fucking nightmare. I also question the bottom line profit, too. Gas stations are big revenue, but what are you actually walking away with at the end of the day/week/month?
From what I've heard, many gas stations actually *lose* money on the gas itself - gas is just a loss-leader to attract people into the convenience store to buy food items that they actually run a profit on.
This (and vehicle maintenance just being a different animal than it once was) is why the gas station model changed so much in the last several decades. Gas stations went away from being service stations and are all now convenience stores. The ones that want to have more profit do shit like car washes, "fresh" food (like hot dogs & nachos & shit), even full-service restaurants (like Sheetz) & all that.
To hellllll with all that, IMO.
If you wanna buy some land & build a cash flowing asset, something like a coin-op car wash would be way less stress & headache, and likely not too different in bottom line profit at the end of the day (unless you went with some insanely over the top operation with the resturant & all that).
Super-long hours. Dealing wtih ever-changing fuel prices. Dealing with multiple types of vendors / deliveries from fuel to milk to soda to chips/snacks to other food items & sundries. I imagine you likely gotta have some kinda permits or licensing to sell beer / wine / alcohol, as well as tobacco, lottery tickets, etc.
Between gas, lottery tickets, booze, tobacco, propane (since many sell that, too), checking ID, etc, there has to be never-ending regulatory bullshit & red tape.
I can only imagine what it's like dealing with theft & loss prevention.
Like I said - if you owned one & had a team running it for you so you could be hands off, that'd be one thing. It being a small business that you run yourself? Sounds like a fucking nightmare. I also question the bottom line profit, too. Gas stations are big revenue, but what are you actually walking away with at the end of the day/week/month?
From what I've heard, many gas stations actually *lose* money on the gas itself - gas is just a loss-leader to attract people into the convenience store to buy food items that they actually run a profit on.
This (and vehicle maintenance just being a different animal than it once was) is why the gas station model changed so much in the last several decades. Gas stations went away from being service stations and are all now convenience stores. The ones that want to have more profit do shit like car washes, "fresh" food (like hot dogs & nachos & shit), even full-service restaurants (like Sheetz) & all that.
To hellllll with all that, IMO.
If you wanna buy some land & build a cash flowing asset, something like a coin-op car wash would be way less stress & headache, and likely not too different in bottom line profit at the end of the day (unless you went with some insanely over the top operation with the resturant & all that).
Campground is a great idea.
Car washes & laundromats are pretty common & popular businesses for people to buy as cash flowing assets. I only mentioned car wash as I didn't think a laundromat was necessarily a good fit for the land / area OP was describing.
But both are good as they're fairly hands off & decently low overhead, all things considered.
You save a fuck-ton on labor & inventory, if nothing else.
I also think with gas stations there’s huge costs associated with environmental impact systems, etc.
That's why you need kick ass Nite BeeQ(tm)!
