1. Gas Stations

The Economics of Everyday Things

Freakonomics Network

Business

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2023

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In our first episode, host Zachary Crockett sidles up to the pump to ask: Who owns your local gas station, and where do their profits really come from?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Us Americans, we just love our gasoline.
0:07.0	We use 374 million gallons of gas every day.
0:15.8	That's around 30 full tanks for every registered vehicle per year.
0:20.8	Now relative to other countries, gas is actually pretty cheap in the US.
0:26.2	Considering the sheer amount we use though, every extra penny counts.
0:32.0	When gas gets more expensive, we all look for someone to blame, politicians, oil executives.
0:38.5	But the easiest target is the person who has to contend with disgruntled customers face to face. the gas station owner. When the price of oil skyrocketed
0:42.6	customers face to face, the gas station owner.
0:50.5	When the price of oil skyrocketed last summer, people on the internet created all kinds of memes about how much station owners were making.
0:59.0	One shows a picture of Scrooge McDuck skiing down a mountain of cash. It's titled
1:06.0	Gas Station Owners right now. But are gas station owners really swimming in cash?
1:13.0	No, can I yell that any louder?
1:15.5	Not at all.
1:17.0	It's definitely not what people think.
1:19.2	For the Freakonomics Radio Network, this is the economics of everyday things.
1:26.4	I'm Zachary Crockett.
1:28.0	Today, Gas Stations. There are 145,000 gas stations in the US. A lot of them have signs displaying the
1:38.7	logo of one of the big oil companies, but that doesn't mean the company owns the gas station.
1:45.0	Eight out of ten gas stations in the US are actually owned by independent operators.
1:51.1	They pay oil companies for the right to use their branding and gas.
1:55.0	Many of them came here from other countries, like Jitander P. Seti.
2:00.0	I was born and raised in New Delhi, India. I came here at 17 year old in 1976 and two days after
	...

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