"Stormin Mormon" wrote:

Can't remember the source. But I remember hearing that the
normal markup on gasoline is nearly nothing. T

Averages .05 or .06/gal in the US as I recall. Of course that's an average and
depends on who owns the station and how much volume they do.

The reasons prices fluctuate so rapidly at retail and so quickly when crude
increases is because many stations do not own the inventory. The refinery or
distributor owns it and sets the price daily. The station just adds their markup
when changing the price.

The funny thing is that when prices are increasing at the pump, we're told it's
because the station owner has to pay for his next delivery, so it doesn't matter
that they paid less for the current inventory. Yet, when crude prices are
falling - "Oh, we have to recover what we paid for this inventory."