  Zxzm Member Username: Zxzm Post Number: 95 Registered: 10-2007 |
http://www.wxyz.com/news/local /story.aspx?content_id=294c789 3-a059-43bd-81ce-afc69f90cff2 Reality is stranger than fiction... | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 727 Registered: 09-2007 |
Wow, now you know it's the worst side of town when people shoot each other for profit. | ||
Zxzm Member Username: Zxzm Post Number: 96 Registered: 10-2007 |
People shoot each other for profit all the time. Familiar w/ the drug trade at all? | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 4618 Registered: 10-2004 |
Do those gas-station/convenience-store owners in Iraq kill their competitors over a 3-cent-per-gallon price change? | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3124 Registered: 06-2004 |
The company I work for used to own a number of BP stations. BP's pricing strategy seems to be to stay a penny or two higher than the competition on the premise that people will be brand loyal and pay the difference, but that's really not true around here and the station owners, not BP, are the ones who end up losing out as the higher profit non-fuel sales are lost, not to mention the drive-offs that occur (and peak around this time of year). | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 729 Registered: 09-2007 |
"Do those gas-station/convenience-store owners in Iraq kill their competitors over a 3-cent-per-gallon price change?" This is the first time I heard of someone shooting another Gas Station Owner for just 3 Cents per gallon. Dammit, it's Marketing. If you can't hang with the big dogs, just stay on the porch. No sense in barking at everyone. (Message edited by DetroitRise on November 16, 2007) | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 4619 Registered: 10-2004 |
How can there be drive-offs when (all?) the gas stations in Detroit are prepaid??? | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3125 Registered: 06-2004 |
Well, now you know why virtually all in the city are pre-paid and increasingly more in the suburbs are. But there are still such tactics as presenting a fake or stolen credit card for the cashier to hold as prepay, or those cashiers not on the ball who screw up. Recently I read that license plate thefts are also on the rise. One of the reasons is to use them in place of a valid plate when stealing gas. | ||
Rob_in_warren Member Username: Rob_in_warren Post Number: 1 Registered: 11-2007 |
I thought we only fought other countries over the cost of oil? ...sad story | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 4621 Registered: 10-2004 |
Credit-car fraud is not driving-off! Words, especially when used together, mean things... | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3126 Registered: 06-2004 |
"Credit-car fraud is not driving-off" it is when it's presented as collateral for payment then left behind as the car speeds out the drive | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 4622 Registered: 10-2004 |
Which sensible operator in Detroit takes collateral for payment by strangers??? That's asking for trouble. Besides, I don't know of any stations in SW Detroit (or the rest of Detroit) that isn't prepay for the past decade for strangers. However, those stations I would frequent would most often wave me off if I came to prepay. But, they knew me as a regular customer and trusted me. There's no good reason to confer that treatment to strangers. | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 1598 Registered: 01-2006 |
A hearty DetroitYes welcome to Rob_in_warren. And now, back to our regularly scheduled argument over next-to-nothing. | ||
Rjk Member Username: Rjk Post Number: 947 Registered: 11-2003 |
I drove by that area around 11:30 today. With all the TV stations and cops everywhere I guessed that it had to be a multiple slaying. Obviously the circumstances in which the one murder took place made it a big story. It'll be interesting to see what type of defense the Marathon owner can come up with and whether he has a legit slef-defense argument. I've been to each gas station 3-4 times and the Marathon station seemed to be run by one gentlemen, I'm assuming he was the owner, while the BP seemed much more busier and had multiple workers. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 4626 Registered: 10-2004 |
The convenience-store business is a tough racket these days with customers coming in less often. And the owners have to put in some very long work weeks--often 80 hours or more when their operations are 24/7. I remember when that BP was built during 1997 or 1998. There was a local ad sheet/paper that featured the BP with a full-page spread of his then-new station. Back then it cost around $ 1/2 million for the station/store/car wash. In case anybody's interested in how much it costs to franchise a BP. It's $2 1/4 to 6 1/2 million! And they have mortgages too to have to cover... | ||
Sg9018 Member Username: Sg9018 Post Number: 81 Registered: 10-2006 |
Well guys this news story made national news. Well here in New York City; I just saw a preview of WABC 11pm news (ABC7)of the story with video. This is such a horrible way to end a life. I will think it is a very hard job being a Gas station owner. They have a very unpopluar job and they have to deal with the public everyday. Not the big oil companies and if everyone goes to the other gas stations. Your gas station can go out of business and you have no job. What happened to the friendly game of competition? | ||
Billybbrew Member Username: Billybbrew Post Number: 297 Registered: 07-2005 |
I am a regular customer at that BP (almost exclusively) and am very saddened by all this. Joe was a very good man, very fair to his employee's, and a decent family man. I just find this whole thing extremely tragic. I've never heard anyone say a bad word about him, of course, I never talked to the owner of the Marathon, but Joe was highly respected in the community. He also owns the Mobil on the other side of the freeway and owner the Farmer's Market store on Vernor, although he now leases that out. Very sad indeed. | ||
Bobj Member Username: Bobj Post Number: 2840 Registered: 11-2003 |
Hard times bring out the worst in people | ||
Gsgeorge Member Username: Gsgeorge Post Number: 345 Registered: 08-2006 |
quote: WTF? Who are these people? What can possibly be so important about 3 cents of gas that this needed to happen? And then the BP station changes its prices after all is said and done... what were they trying to do? WHO CARES what your price is?! A MAN IS DEAD. Great work people.... sorry, but I don't have any sympathy for either of these stations. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 4628 Registered: 10-2004 |
The BP owner was probably in financial distress. If he did own the former Farmer's Market on Vernor, he was obviously not benefiting from that because there hasn't been a stable renter in there for the past few years. It was usually vacant as it's now. Also the Comcast store there (whoever owns that?) next door or so closed down on the Tenth of November. Maybe he flipped out, but, in any event, he acted stupidly and had the major hand in causing his demise. | ||
Thecarl Member Username: Thecarl Post Number: 1160 Registered: 04-2005 |
quote: respectfully restated: hard times bring out the *best* and *worst* in people! | ||
Reddog289 Member Username: Reddog289 Post Number: 75 Registered: 08-2007 |
with them hard times i have noticed lots more folks riding bikes, might be safer then getting stuck in a shoot out | ||
Rjk Member Username: Rjk Post Number: 948 Registered: 11-2003 |
A Freep article (Saturday) states that the BP owner walked across the street with two of his employees to confront the marathon owner. I don't understand why one person would confront the owner about his prices let alone 3 people. One of the BP employees hit a Marathon employee with a baseball bat. Based on the info so far I could see the Marathon owner making a very good case of self-defense. | ||
Titancub Member Username: Titancub Post Number: 96 Registered: 08-2006 |
Only good news is that justice will be served and the idiot murderer will be locked away for life. He's proven that he thinks his life is only worth 3 cents since he's happy to give it away for that amount. | ||
Firstandten Member Username: Firstandten Post Number: 128 Registered: 05-2006 |
From reading the article it could be self-defense. However I bet there has been bad blood between the two stations in the past since the incident that got the man killed seemed like a show down. The problem is the oil companies has these gas stations squeezed so tight, that can't make any money on gas, and I guess they aren't making it up with the food items. Most of these stations don't do repairs anymore which is another revenue stream that dried up. Gas stations while always a tough business is really tough now but still no excuse for a man to lose his life over. | ||
Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 995 Registered: 11-2004 |
Todays lesson: Don't bring a baseball bat to a gunfight. (Message edited by eric on November 17, 2007) | ||
401don Member Username: 401don Post Number: 56 Registered: 11-2007 |
Just saw the story on CNN. Our positive national news spin lasted about 3 days. | ||
Firstandten Member Username: Firstandten Post Number: 129 Registered: 05-2006 |
The media will make this story into a circus saying how the man got shot over 3 cents making the people involved seem stupid. Yes, it was a dumb act but it was over 3 cents per gallon, over the course of the day it could mean hundreds of dollars, maybe enough to pay his employees or keep the store open another week. Sometimes desperate people do desperate things. | ||
Arab_guyumich Member Username: Arab_guyumich Post Number: 1 Registered: 11-2007 |
This shooting is symptomatic of the problems facing gas station owners in this market. While it's true that station owners throughout the country are hurting from the high fuel prices, I think that the problem is really exacerbated in Detroit, with our oversupply of stations. There are simply too many gas stations fighting over an ever smaller market (in terms of expendable cash for convenience store purchases...and even customers in some neighborhoods). That said, this shooting appears to be the culmination of a feud that has gone on for some time. From what I gather, the feud started after the Marathon station began pricing its fuel below cost, as a loss leader, that gradually siphoned off a significant amount of the BP station's business. In some states this type of gas station pricing is illegal, but that's not the case in Michigan. | ||
Flyingj Member Username: Flyingj Post Number: 44 Registered: 08-2006 |
Arab_guyumich, you're echoing a problem from the Chrysler thread-the founder of Autobytel.com was a big Dodge-Chrysler-Plymouth('membe r them?) dealer over in the South Bay/LBC area, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =JOENWpG86NY http://www.dailymotion.com/vid eo/x2ciq1_pete-ellis-dodge-198 8-commercial_ads he got out & went online because there are too many auto dealerships in this country & they're cannibalizing each other's business, but they're also the 800-lbs gorillas when it comes to the Big 3. So we've got the #1 Industry in Michigan beholden to a network of desperate businessmen http://www.yoyow.com/marye/ell is.html | ||
Gsgeorge Member Username: Gsgeorge Post Number: 348 Registered: 08-2006 |
Arab_guyumich, welcome to the forum. Firstandten, are you crazy? Since when is a few hundred dollars of profit from your business ever worth a human life? | ||
East_detroit Member Username: East_detroit Post Number: 1259 Registered: 11-2003 |
"Words, especially when used together, mean things..." Especially yours in that context when you've been a snarky asshole and then don't apologize for being said asshole after clarification shows your premise as false. | ||
Firstandten Member Username: Firstandten Post Number: 133 Registered: 05-2006 |
Gsgeorge- To answer your question, for rational people money is no reason to take a human life. Thats why I believe there was something more to this incident. ongoing bad blood between the two station owners. Not excusing the behavior but it is an indication as to how people react when it comes to money. | ||
The_ed Member Username: The_ed Post Number: 1065 Registered: 10-2007 |
It was bound to happen sooner or later... http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/section?Category=NEWS01 | ||
Milt721 Member Username: Milt721 Post Number: 1 Registered: 09-2007 |
someone was posting old dealership commercials on here. check this one out... http://www.tvparty.com/announc e/ralfwillbig.ram Sorry about the realplayer format... | ||
Bobj Member Username: Bobj Post Number: 2923 Registered: 11-2003 |
Saw this story on CNN this am - crazy stuff |
