We've had about 50 go under here in the last 6 months and we are in a fast growing area.

 

ah, a topic close to my heart. although i am in australia, and the petrol station/ convenience store business may differ slightly, they basic blueprint is the same. firstly, u need to consider whether it is a franchise, u mention it is an exxon store, as is often the case, exxon own the land, and they lease the site to the current franchisee, often for 10-15 years, after this period, exxon, or the franchisor may decide to buy back the store (if it is profitable), or they may put it up for sale again by tender, or offer to lease it back to the incumbent again.
next, petrol sales, this is based purely on australian information, busy petrol stations, as a rule make about 2-3 cents per litre on fuel that costs about $1 / litre. currently petrol in australia is about $1.15/litre. when it was about 90c/l i know of a busy shell petrol station in sydney that was doing over $2 million is fuel sales alone and made no money from it at all. NONE. how u ask. well once u take out wages, electricity, water, etc, as well as drive offs ( this is when a person fills their car and takes off without paying, thereby requiring u to sell more fuel to cover this loss) then it is very easy to see why petrol stations make very little in petrol sales.
so where do they make their money from, the store. it is imperative that the convenience store be top notch. it needs to offer a huge selection of groceries, to have an excellent frozen foods section, it basically needs to be like a mini supermarket.
also, if u have the space, and have a good mechanic/workshop, then this may also help as the extra income from servicing of cars also adds to the bottom line. other possible sources of revenue may include hire of trailors, bbq gas bottle refilling, joint co-operatives with many of the franchised food retailers such as pizza, bakeries, cakes, etc.
dpark makes a good point, he just hasnt explained it very well, basically he is saying that the ordinary person on the street looks at a busy convenience store and sees the register constantly ringing up sales, and they must think, the owner must be making major loot, however, the ordinary person, i have found knows dick all about business, they only know about being an employee, this is not a slight on employees, its not their fault, however, back to my point, they dont see all the extras that goes into running a business, they dont see the hidden costs, the surprise costs that seem to pop up out of the blue. as a rule of thumb, food retail operates at around 25% gross profit, depending on the type, sandwiches r often higher, supermarkets are around 6% of gross profit. a lot of u may already know this, but i like to say it to illustrate how important it is to look beyond how much a business turnsover. a business can have the best turnover in the world, but if their isnt any money to be made then there is no point.
another key to owning a business is that it provides a source of cash flow, this is one of the crucial points to owning a business, which many ordinary people dont comprehend. for example, much like an employee receives their fortnightly paypacket and needs to budget accordingly, a business needs to budget accordingly based on their projected cash flow in terms of paying creditors, etc. being a convenience store, cash flow is great, u often sell teh products before u have paid for them, however, a lot of grocery items sit on shelves, not generating any income for u at all.
next, finding a decent manager. wow, ordinary people make it sound so easy to find a DECENT MANAGER. (shakes head). here is the thing, its ur business, u like to think that u can train a person to do things exactly how u like them to be done, right. well in theory that should be the case, but it never is. things always mess up. it all depends on how easy natured u r and how much u r willing to let go that makes u a good business owner or not. i should know, i own my own business, yet i still have to answer to my older brother who is the head of the business, and i know for samn sure that i run my businesses as tight as can be, but i can never get it right all the time.
employees will always find a way to short cut, its human nature, unless they have a vested interest, there is no reason for them to do any more than is deemed necessary. dont believe me, then ask urself why people always constantly bitch about work, and why u always hear stories of people taking advantage of the system of stealing small items from work and what not, becasue they can, and no one is there to check on them. more often than not its small trivial stuff, and this leads me back to what i said earlier, how much are u willing to let go, if u let a little go thenthats fine, but that little bit costs u money.
another thing, u talk about opening it for extended periods, thats great, but now u have the added worry or security issues, in australia it is mandatory to have only males work after 9pm in petrol stations, or if a female is rostered on then a male needs to be there. then u have the problems of armed holdups, (i personally know of a friend that has been involved in 3 knife/syringe holdups), u need to consider the number of employees/ team sworking in that shift, for a 24 hr convenience store, u need at least 3 crews. what do u pay ur manager?? $40k a yr, then ur assistnat manager. then u need to worry about holiday loadings, sickness benefits, 401k, superannuation, blah blah blah,
but wait, u say i can get my accountant to help me out here, but then u need to pay ur accounting fees for all the man hours he is helping u with, not to mention a book keeper, becasue running a petrol station isnt exactly teh easiest bsuiness in terms of paperwork
why dont u ask him why he simply hire a decent manager, i mean, heck mcdonalds hires managers all over the world for their stores, why cant i. it boils down to the systems, mcdonalds has perfected its business operations for managers down to the finest details, do u have the details in place??everything that u need to know to run the store, well seeing as ur asking us, i doubt u do, so where does that put u in terms of hiring a decent manager and then training them up to run ur store??
dont take this the wrong way, im just typing it as i think, it may come across as being particularly blunt, even rude, but thats me, i often come across that way, but when it comes to business, then i take it very seriously, and it irritates me to no end when ordinary people see a franchise, in australia, the latest craze is juice bars, and they go ape shit , thinking they make money, poor bastards, a lot of people jump on board these businesses without doing their due dillience reports and the necessary research.
another thing mentioned is teh demographics, a caltex petrol station that a good friend managers has a drive thru car wash, workshop, full supermarket, mini bakery, petrol sales and pizza machine, it is located in a very wealthy sydney suburb, it constantly ranks inthe top 5 performers in nsw for caltex stores, it is company owned, this store is very profitable, so dont believe what was said about higher socio economic suburbs that was mentioned before, they do work.
i think i have covered a lot here. i got a whole lot more to talk about, but then i might come across as being a ranter. im interested in the replies

 

double post

 

holy long reply blackS2k....... i lapsed into a coma somewhere in the middle though.. (joking)

Seriously - my first thought was to see if any of my wife's family members would be interested in running it. At that point I would have a semi reliable person. I would also offer them some ownership incentives and/or bonus incentives.

The building is owned privately right now and the lease is good through 2007 with an extension until 2012 (at least). The owner of the building said they would add to the building to house a SUBWAY sub store.

The extra hours.... right now it is open 8am-9pm.... i would open at 6:30am and close at 9pm..... it would just allow more of the morning commuters to stop in for some coffee and maybe a donut...

I need to do some more research, but basically if I can find a reliable relative I think it would work well enough.....

I think there are probably more ways to expand business, etc..... Even if it is simple to get people in the store.... ALL FOUNTAIN DRINKS $.79 or something goofy like that just to get them in there.....

I would definately need to watch the employee theft.... I know I used to steal stuff as an employee when i was younger.

I do appreciate all the responses.....