Well, with the price of gasoline going up worldwide, I thought I would do a little microeconomic analysis here on Phuket... or Patong anyways.
Normally, I stop at the fake "Shell" stations to fill up the 125 Honda Wave that I rent. It costs 160 baht for a bone dry tank. A few days ago, I filled up at the Caltex and it cost 100 baht. That's a 60 baht difference (gross profit), or translates into a 60% markup. That's pretty big.
So, I did a little math. OK, not everyone fills up from bone dry, so let's suppose a 40 baht gross profit from each customer looking for the convenience of these little stands just to top off their tanks. 10 customers per hour (conservative from what I saw) translates into 400 baht per hour, and on a 10 hour day (also conservative), that is 4,000 baht per day, or 120,000 baht per month gross. Let's say minimal charges for storage, transport, lease, insurance, license, disposal costs and I am gonna guess that a little stand makes 100,000 baht per month in LOW season. Just one.
I read about a lot of guys that want to set up their GF's in a nice business (a beauty shop or rental business of some kind), but what is wrong with this one? Just managing a little stand on a small piece of land off a main road in Patong or on the way to somewhere else seems to be a meal ticket.
Or, maybe I am missing something here. Are these "Shell" places a Caltex front? Thai mafia controlled? What are the barriers to entry here?
I must be missing something...
