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Same goes for gas prices. I heard an earnings call recently for a public company that runs a ton of gas stations. They indicated that their margins on gasolin

Same goes for gas prices. I heard an earnings call recently for a public company that runs a ton of gas stations. They indicated that their margins on gasoline have gone far far up and offsetted and losses of sales of drink/snacks etc in their stores, because they are quick to raise gas prices when oil prices go up, but very slow to do so when prices go down. The amount of fascinating economic lessons we've gotten over the past 6 months is amazing. All kinds of cool things I've learned: Pool companies are backed up 1 year right now with people nesting at home Whirlpool blew their analysts earnings estimates out of the water on strong appliance sales due to "nesting at home" Weber grills are on huge back order. and on and on.

jacquesm 6y ago
> losses of sales of drink/snacks etc in their stores As a former gas station owner, let me correct you here. Drinks and snacks, no matter how low the volume have crazy margins, sometimes 100% or more and make up a large fraction of gas station profits. It isn't rare to run the fuel at a loss to sell more ice cream and drinks.
- jon-wood 6y ago
  How can a product have > 100% margin? Were you getting paid by the supplier to stock their products?
  - gambiting 6y ago
    Uhm, you buy an item for $1, sell it for $3, the margin is 200%, no?
    - jon-wood 6y ago
      Ugh, of course. I had a total blank on basic maths for a moment.
    - sokoloff 6y ago
      As typically defined: The margin is 67%. The markup is 200%. Margin is "profit as percent of revenue". Markup is "profit as percent of COGS".
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    You are right, I should have used markup, not margin. Apologies.
leetrout 6y ago
I was just talking to a friend about that - a lot of 3D printers are sold out. Good webcams are gone. Cheap intex vinyl pools are gone or selling for 5-10x their original price. It really is astounding how quickly things shifted.

jacquesm 6y ago

> losses of sales of drink/snacks etc in their stores As a former gas station owner, let me correct you here. Drinks and snacks, no matter how low the volume have crazy margins, sometimes 100% or more and make up a large fraction of gas station profits. It isn't rare to run the fuel at a loss to sell more ice cream and drinks.

jon-wood 6y ago
How can a product have > 100% margin? Were you getting paid by the supplier to stock their products?
- gambiting 6y ago
  Uhm, you buy an item for $1, sell it for $3, the margin is 200%, no?
  - jon-wood 6y ago
    Ugh, of course. I had a total blank on basic maths for a moment.
  - sokoloff 6y ago
    As typically defined: The margin is 67%. The markup is 200%. Margin is "profit as percent of revenue". Markup is "profit as percent of COGS".
- jacquesm 6y ago
  You are right, I should have used markup, not margin. Apologies.

leetrout 6y ago

I was just talking to a friend about that - a lot of 3D printers are sold out. Good webcams are gone. Cheap intex vinyl pools are gone or selling for 5-10x their original price. It really is astounding how quickly things shifted.