Gas Price Alert: Gas Stations shutting down over price gouging

As the oil companies continue to have record profits and argue that their gross margins are still too lean, consumers are increasingly feeling gouged by high gas prices. You know exactly what I am paying for gas, and even at a discount club the prices are insanely high. Now, the high price for gas - and the incredibly low profits that individual gas stations get for it - are driving individual stations away from even selling gasoline in favor of just doing car repairs.

Including the wholesale cost of gas and other taxes and charges, he was being asked to pay $3.44 a gallon Friday, a day when the competing stations down the street were selling gasoline for $3.47.

"Three cents a gallon doesn't cut it," Curro said. "It doesn't pay the bills."

Add to that the money he loses every time a motorist uses a credit card at the pump, and there was no reason to keep selling gas, Curro said.

Credit card companies and banks get an average of 2.75% on every gallon of gas sold, and credit card processing fees now rank as the second-biggest expense for gas station operators, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores.

"The way I see it is, I'm doing all the work of providing the labor, the wages, the electricity, the lighting, the maintenance of the pumps, the repairs and the insurance, which is quite substantial," Curro said. "I'm doing all the work, and somebody else is getting fat on me."

It is time for the oil companies to realize their business model is fundamentally broken. Whether by refinery issues, problems in the Middle East, or by their own incompetence, they are rapidly reaching a point where consumers are demanding relief. And that relief will come. Either in the form of their own action, Congressional action, or alternative means of getting to work. I am actually telecommuting now far more often than before to save money on gas, and bought the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid I could. How long until a practical alternative to the gasoline-powered car is out there, and the bottom falls out from the oil machine?