IS THIS feasible?

There is a empirical example of this in the marketplace now in the form of Costco gas stations. They run between three and seven cents cheaper than typical "neighborhood" prices and they are usually packed. There are other financial loyalty rewards from Costco membership and using the dedicated card, but these are not in cash. They rewards are in Costco currency and part of the rewards come from the Citi Visa. Membership driven and all located on property.
They also have huge scale in an existing "paid" membership model.


this is an important point i usually dont bring up cuz this is last resort assuming this idea fails in its virtual form,,, if this idea fails in its virtual form where we can run it without owning anything,,, then PLAN B would be to become the gas station itself and offer it where people can pick up gas only from our stations,,, we would start in certain markets only and expand from there,,, kind of like shake shack burgers,,,, even they can go public,,,, but this would be wwaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the line cuz the idea can still work virtually,,, maybe not a massive scale ,, i still believe it could work virtually at least in certain markets only if not nationwide
 
Station markup - Of course some of the money you spend at the pump does go to the service station. While some consumers blame high prices on station markup, service stations typically add on a few cents per gallon. There's no set standard for how much gas stations add on to the price. Some may add just a couple of cents, while others may add as much as a dime or more. However, some states have markup laws prohibiting stations from charging less than a certain percentage over invoice from the wholesaler. These laws are designed to protect small, individually-owned gas stations from being driven out of business by large chains that can afford to slash prices at select locations.

Quoting a DOE article here

a few gas station owners in the past told me that sometimes they price their gas even below cost just to bring customers in the door cuz most of the money is made from the convenience store rather than the gas,,, our idea would actually help consumers because wouldnt be even looking at the price during redemption since they are thinking in gallon terms not dollars any more after they made their initial purchase
 
What happens when not if, many gas stations can't be getting cheap gasoline from refinery as costs or overseas charging more cause futures markets have doubled or tripled and cardholders bought these cards a buck or more from current price and very few stations are honoring these cards any more? The small station owners are not going to go into debt and lose their stations. It is going to end up being like chips at a casino and they not honoring them any more for past two years.

One of the huge reasons gasoline costs way it does is state taxes, PA highest at 50.4 to lowest AK 12.25cnts per gallon and federal taxes of 18.40 cents per gallon. And you can expect these taxes going to increase as states going bankrupt.

http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/docs/GasTaxMap-01_0.png

The other flip of the coin, when crude oil tops and instead of fast drop, could be 3-4 years decline, consumer will be losing as they could have bought way too high and take years/decades before price that high again.

As far as the company itself, every dollar collects interest and the 3%, but at some point all those who bought cards will ask for redemption, so better have slick lawyers. This could be profitable business for few years till it is not good, then the states can start suing you if you don't allow redemption.

Plus I don't know regulations of dealing with buying commodities like gasoline as in a way the consumer becomes a trader and company can be considered an exchange? It is not like buying $50 Gift card at Starbucks, I am not locked into a price of cup of coffee.


as far as gas stations, they have no say,, these cards run like credit gas station gets their asking price,,, we have nothing to do with the gas station at all and we need nothing from them,,, let me clarify this one for u with an overly simplified example,,, customer buys 1 gallon at 2 dollars,,, we hedge it on his behalf,,, price goes up to 3,,, customer redeems,,, we lose a dollar from the customer redeeming but make the dollar (or more) from hedging,, of course assuming perfect hedge,, u do though touch upon a sensitive situation though that might arise,,, and that is if there was ever another oil shock in which crude itself becomes scarce and unavailable,, in which case customers money is tied up with us and cant redeem it, not cuz of us but cuz of forces beyond us,,,, this has to be answer,,, but this is for the very faaaaaaaar future and becomes a concern when this company becomes TOO BIG TO FAIL,, but COULD also be solved (not for sure) by refunding customers their money,, again a remote situation

THE TAX ISSUE WITHIN STATES and federal rate is also a very BIG issue but also remote,, in the last 18 years or so i believe taxes on gasoline has only been raised twice... the tax issue has to be addressed somehow cuz gas prices could end up going higher cuz of taxation rather than an increase in crude,,,

we would never disallow redemption,, customers can redeem their gas anytime as long as there is still gas in the world,,,

regulation,,, THIS IS THE MOST important step and hurdle to start compared with the others which wont arise till later,,, but its also not impossible the regulations here is very involved,, becauyse in a way we are becoming a bank,,, we are becoming custodials of the money of the customers whom buy today,, redeem later,,,, and the resposbility to deliver the product at the same price lies within the company (us) thus there is a huge risk and consumer safety issue here but as again with any other business to business, it can be regulated,,, audited,, stress tested as well
 
once again, all the problems brought up here pose a threat,,, some serious some not,,, but not evident enough to conclude the business will end because of them
 
once again, all the problems brought up here pose a threat,,, some serious some not,,, but not evident enough to conclude the business will end because of them
Agree.
If I came on here... (and say Ebay didn't exist)... and outlined a plan for an online auction where people had to trust other people, buy stuff sight unseen, etc..... I would get 20 pages of why it wouldn't work. And yet we have E-bay.

Someone once told me... "every time you share an idea it loses strength". Very true.

You'll get there.
 
It is always best to know all the possible problems before getting into businesses than finding out too late and then really costing some bucks. So you brainstorm to them, just like trading which is a business as well, what you do if you lose internet or computer locks up, lose power, always have secondary plans of cable/DSL/satellite/T-1, backup computer and generator..etc.

I am not saying it bad idea, but have all the answers and good attorneys.
 
I gots a problem with you, RUFUS MREHIN.

From one of your very first posts here..."MACD signals picked up the dot com bubble and its top and bottom as well as september eleventh and 2008 top as well as the notorious silver bubble in 2011..."

You stated in this thread that you are 28YO. If you are really 28 YO, then on 9/11/2001 you were what...12 YO? You knew so much about the financial industry when you were 12 YO, through that world crisis, that you started making a fuck-ton of money? Before the Internet was available to a general retail trader in a meaningful way? You know, we used to have to call our brokers on something called a "LANDLINE" to make a trade. There are some out there who dare to call it a telephone, but they have been relegated to the leper colony by your kind.

And at the time of the 2008 crash you were a bit older, sure. You went from 12YO to 19YO. You made an ever more fuck-ton of money in those delicate years of your adolescence? So now you are 20YO with a private jet and private yacht, and are asking for someone here to basically invest in your business of a pozni-schema, where you take everyone's money, invest in futures, hedge it in some off-handed way, and try to sell a continually-evolving schema to new suckers to take the bait of how you are going to save them money by investing it in said offsetting hedge? We've seen your kind before.

You, sir, do not pass the sniff test.

The biggest give-away is your patently-failed attempt at typing coherent messages in the English language, with proper punctuation, grammar and sentence structure. You seem to have texting-disease.

If my Spidey-Sense is wrong on this, I apologize. But I don't think it is. Something smells very wrong about it all, after looking through all of your posts.

Prove me wrong...Man.
 
Last edited:
It is always best to know all the possible problems before getting into businesses than finding out too late and then really costing some bucks. So you brainstorm to them, just like trading which is a business as well, what you do if you lose internet or computer locks up, lose power, always have secondary plans of cable/DSL/satellite/T-1, backup computer and generator..etc.

I am not saying it bad idea, but have all the answers and good attorneys.


great advice,,,
 
I gots a problem with you, RUFUS MREHIN.

From one of your very first posts here..."MACD signals picked up the dot com bubble and its top and bottom as well as september eleventh and 2008 top as well as the notorious silver bubble in 2011..."

You stated in this thread that you are 28YO. If you are really 28 YO, then on 9/11/2001 you were what...12 YO? You knew so much about the financial industry when you were 12 YO, through that world crisis, that you started making a fuck-ton of money? Before the Internet was available to a general retail trader in a meaningful way? You know, we used to have to call our brokers on something called a "LANDLINE" to make a trade. There are some out there who dare to call it a telephone, but they have been relegated to the leper colony by your kind.

And at the time of the 2008 crash you were a bit older, sure. You went from 12YO to 19YO. You made an ever more fuck-ton of money in those delicate years of your adolescence? So now you are 20YO with a private jet and private yacht, and are asking for someone here to basically invest in your business of a pozni-schema, where you take everyone's money, invest in futures, hedge it in some off-handed way, and try to sell a continually-evolving schema to new suckers to take the bait of how you are going to save them money by investing it in said offsetting hedge? We've seen your kind before.

You, sir, do not pass the sniff test.

The biggest give-away is your patently-failed attempt at typing coherent messages in the English language, with proper punctuation, grammar and sentence structure. You seem to have texting-disease.

If my Spidey-Sense is wrong on this, I apologize. But I don't think it is. Something smells very wrong about it all, after looking through all of your posts.

Prove me wrong...Man.

iam not sure how u infer from me saying THE MACD PICKED UP this and that to me saying i traded those instruments,,, i do lots of back testing and observe these things,,, thats it

once again,, where did u come up with the fact i own a jet and a yacht????? i said these are my goals in life,,

man u speak of my typing and grammar in english and yet u cant even read coherntly whats said,,,if u want a a coherent thread with good grammar and english find a site for threads for english teachers,,, i get it,,, grammatical errors or not is no the point of this thread,,, its simply getting the point accross, iam not putting efforts into the typing

any ways man,, ive learned its not good to argue with morons,,, its makes u look like one,,, ,, much love man,, much love,, its better to be forgiving than combative,,,,

and as far as the sniffing and tests, dont worry, it wont be your nose that has to do the final test, its gonna be Capitalism, society, and the world save your nose for other things

i genuinely wish u the best because i pity people like you and genuinly feel bad that at your age they get stuck in old beliefs and dissatisfaction from such a mindset that arise from their past that they project it upon life and others and their family,,, MUCH LOVE MAN,,, much love ... tc
 
...
i genuinely wish u the best because i pity people like you and genuinly feel bad that at your age they get stuck in old beliefs and dissatisfaction from such a mindset that arise from their past that they project it upon life and others and their family,,, MUCH LOVE MAN,,, much love ... tc

Groovy man, much love. Much love.

...Xela, this might sound pretty funny but believe it or not the MACD does have a powerfull magical predictive properties, lets say accuerate instead of magical, iam more than happy to show you and prove to you its resiliency,...

MACD has "powerful magical predictive properties"? Hmm. And how did you discover these "magical predictive properties" in an indicator a bazillion traders have been studying for years but never discovered? You yourself must be "magical".
 
Back
Top