Chris Bambury’s family has been selling gas in Sonoma Valley, California, for more than 100 years, but never at prices like this.
The price at his two stations was $6.29 for a gallon of regular gas last week, which is actually cheap for his part of California — AAA put the average price in his county at $6.36.
Gas station owners are struggling with rising gas prices just as much as their customers. The overwhelming majority of gas stations are small businesses — not the big oil companies whose brands they sell — and the rise in the wholesale gas price they pay has cut deeply into their already thin profit margins.
Wholesale gas prices aren’t the only rising cost putting the squeeze on station owners. Credit card fees and delivery charges for fuel are both higher than earlier this year. Labor costs are still up from the last gas spike in 2022.
Bambury’s great-grandfather, August Bonneau, started selling gas back in 1922, before there were even paved roads in his part of California. Bambury started in the family business as a teenager doing entry-level jobs — such as pumping gas and cleaning bathrooms. Today, he has 37 employees between the two stores and a third location that doesn’t sell gas.
