Gasoline Advertising

If a gasoline dealer were to advertise his product like everyone else, it could be $2.00 plus tax.?

No one advertises cars or furniture with the tax incuded, so why not gas?
The figures here are arbitrary. The concept of listing the price, then writing "plus tax" after it, is the question. Why is gasoline the only product sold with an "after tax" price??

Good question!

First of all, gasoline companies advertise their products, but never their prices. Dealers do advertise their prices, but only in large signs at the gas station. Any other way of advertising local gas prices is unworkable because the price the dealers pay changes from day to day (yes, some of them receive deliveries nearly every day) and if the price is advertised in the evening, but the next morning's delivery is 5 cents higher than today's, the dealer would lose money on every gallon selling at the advertised price.

Secondly, don't make a bold claim such as a $2.00 + tax price if you can't support it with evidence (instead of just opinion).

Thirdly, gasoline stations operate on very thin margins. When you consider all their costs (including product, payroll, rent, insurance, etc.) their profits generally amount to less than 10 cents per gallon.

And lastly, there are relatively few locally owned gas stations any more. 30 years ago dealers supplemented their thin margins on gasoline by servicing and repairing cars. They generally rented the gas station from the big oil companies (e.g. Exxon, Amoco, Esso, Flying A, Mobil) and they put up with the thin margins in order to make money doing repairs and service.

The oil companies eventually decided that there was more money to be had by running the gas stations too without the service bays. That's why almost every gas station you see today has a convenience store that often was made by converting service bays to mini-marts.

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