JAMAICA PLAIN, Mass. – The pumps at the JP Oil gas station sit strangely silent. Six months ago, the station quietly shut off its pumps and turned to auto repair only as its business, joining two other gasoline stations (T.J.’s Gas, now T.J.’s Garage, and Castillo Service Center) on the same street who made the switch, the Jamaica Plain Gazette reports. 

Even with high gasoline prices and Americans buying more fuel than ever before, industry experts say it’s not enough to make a profit. “You can make more money on a 12-ounce coffee than on a 12-gallon fill-up,” NACS spokesperson Jeff Lenard  told the newspaper.

“What you’re seeing with these three stores is essentially a microcosm of what you’re seeing around the country,” Lenard said. “The little guy, the traditional gas station with not much else, is going away.”

“The market is just totally out of whack,” JP Oil manager Evan, who goes by the single name, said in a Gazette interview. “The actual price I should charge, it would’ve been $3.12 today, which allows me to make five pennies to the gallon.” For what he sold from his two pumps, he cleared maybe $1,000 a month in profit.

Evan attributes high gasoline prices to deliberate price manipulations by the industry. “A month ago, a barrel of oil was $8 less than the year before, and gas was 32 cents higher,” he said. “Every year in the spring, the companies raise prices…then drop it so you think you’re getting a bargain. Then that’s the price it’ll be for the summer. Psychologically, they set you up.”

The national average pre-tax profit on a gallon of gas last year was 2 to 3 cents on an average retail price mark-up of 15 cents, Lenard said. He cited a NACS survey that found that 27 percent of customers will switch to another station to save 1 cent per gallon – even if driving to the new station literally costs them more in terms of the fuel it takes to get there. “That’s one reason you see margins so low – because people will leave you for a penny,” he said.

Meanwhile, when customers use credit cards, gasoline stations are charged a flat fee in addition to a percentage of the sale. Evan estimated more than 80 percent of his customers used credit cards at his pumps.

“Credit card fees are outrageous,” Lenard said. The credit card companies usually take 2.5 percent of the sale and often clear more on a sale of gas than the retailer does. NACS research has found that there’s little profit in straight gasoline sales these days. Gasoline station operators make their profit by selling soft drinks, tobacco products and other in-store merchandise.

“Gas will get the customer in there, but it’s not where you make your money,” Lenard said.