Choosing a gasoline distributor may be a matter of deciding upon a particular brand and then calling one or two in your area.

Hopkins Oil, Inc. is located in Raleigh, North Carolina but licensed to do business in North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. In central North Carolina, Hopkins Oil, Inc. delivers all our gasoline and diesel fuel on our Fuel Depot trucks. In other areas we engage common carriers that pull from terminals in the area.

Hopkins Oil distributes EXXON, MOBIL, SHELL, and MARATHON brands. We also offer the CROWN brand. In the case of CROWN, one pays a franchise fee once per year, about $2,000, and Hopkins Oil, Inc. is allowed to pick up product from the cheapest rack (Oil Company) that day.

Hopkins Oil, Inc. distributes unbranded product from all of the major unbranded oil suppliers.

(See brand programs by clicking on each brand on the list).

The automobile manufacturers will have to comply with new, higher miles per gallon requirements by our government. In the short run the gap will be filled with the new clean burning diesel engines that are here now and available. The rest of the world has already ‘gone diesel’.

A Volkswagen Jetta can achieve mileage rates that compare favorably with a Prius without any of the battery concerns with higher mileage such as the expense of replacing the batteries. Whether you limit your diesel offering to car diesel or wish to have a separate offering for large trucks depends on your market and the size of your lot.

Car diesel alone should lift sales over 10%.

Major c-store installations should include at least 4 MPDs or multipumpdispensers. Four MPDs means 8 fueling positions or 8 vehicles fueling at once. Larger sites have as many as 10 or 12 MPDs.

Personally, I believe that 8 dispensers or 16 vehicles is the optimum that the cashiers are able to watch. The reason for offering so many dispensers is to handle peak load. Most people fuel going home from work as a rule so c-stores can do 50% of their business between 4 to 7 p.m.

 C-store designs are continually evolving. Thirty years ago, stores were located in the center of a large canopy with pumps on each side and with a flat roof. Now stores are set back from the gasoline canopy with parking in front of the store. Gone are the flat roofs in favor of gables or towers, some with clocks.

Choose a builder that specializes in convenience stores. It helps if the builder can point to stores that he has built in your town. An experienced builder will have a library of plans to stimulate your ideas. Usually, he can modify existing plans or, if necessary, can draw up the plans from scratch.