Why do some gas stations shut down?

[Garak]

Tanks, profitability, maybe the deal with the supplier ended and the operator took it as a good time to retire, or the supplier got annoyed. What BobsArmory mentioned is certainly another possibility.

Tank problems are the biggest and most pressing reason to head for the hills, though, generally speaking. There are pieces of prime real estate in this city that have been sitting untouched for close to fifty years for that reason, and I've seen construction projects on former station sites turn into a nightmare. The last time I saw something new go up on an historical station site was back in 1989, and fortunately for the builders, the company who contracted the building to be done had very deep pockets. They needed it.

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted by Donald
There is not a lot of money in just selling gas. You have to sell the other stuff like, coffee, bagels, beer, soda, lotto, cigarettes

I know of this really small Chevron station that barely has a convenience store. It's kind of like one of those stations with only a small booth with a stainless steel drawer, but with a tiny little convenience store area. I'm not sure how they manage it other than maybe they get rent from a Smog Check business in what used to be their mechanic's bay. It's really weird too because the employees there are always telling people waiting to pump gas to not block their entrance.

 

[CrAlt]

I have a family friend who owned gas station and repair business up until a few years ago.
About 20 years ago The State made him replace his old tanks with fiberglass ones and install modern monitoring systems. Then they changed the regulations again and mandated that everyone had to have doublewalled tanks and only allowed stations to use the new single wall fiberglass ones for 15 years. So when the time was up he ripped out the perfect 15 year old singlewall tanks and just gave up on selling gas. I think this did in most of the independent stations in this state. Now there are 12 pump Cumberland Farms every 5 miles. They must have better lobbyists.