🎯 The business: fuel brings the traffic; coffee, food, drinks and the store make the money. You buy an existing station, usually under a fuel brand’s supply agreement, and the real business is the building, not the pumps. The full game plan is in this section.

Drivers, several hundred to a few thousand a day depending on the road. Fuel margins are pennies a gallon and swing with the market. The inside store runs 25 to 40 percent gross margins on drinks, snacks, tobacco and food, and that is where the profit sits. A car wash or a quick-service food counter on the lot can out-earn the pumps.

Before closing: a Phase I environmental report, the tank records and insurance, the fuel supply contract (its length, its pricing and whether it transfers), twelve months of fuel volume from the supplier, and the inside sales from the point-of-sale system, not the seller. After closing: clean the restrooms, brighten the store, fix the coffee, and watch the shrink.

A station pumping 80,000 gallons a month at a net 12 cents a gallon makes about $9,600 from fuel. Inside sales of $80,000 a month at a 32 percent margin add $25,600. After labor for a 16-hour day, rent or mortgage, utilities, card fees and the loan, a solid single store commonly leaves $8,000 to $15,000 a month for the owner. The margin lives inside.

Underground storage tank registration, insurance and testing (state and federal EPA rules), the fuel brand agreement, tobacco, lottery and alcohol licenses, food permits for anything prepared, weights and measures certification of the pumps, and ADA. The environmental liability transfers to you, so never skip the Phase I.

A tank leak that becomes a six-figure cleanup. Card skimmers on the pumps. Overnight theft and staff shrink. A new highway exit or a dollar store that takes the inside sales. A fuel price spike that leaves you selling gas at a loss for a week. The owners who last build the inside, watch every shift report, and keep an environmental reserve.