by John Keller | Jan 31, 2014 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
According to today’s OPIS report, the average retail fuels margin across the US dropped just over a penny this week to $0.179 per gallon. That reflects a margin drop of $0.013 per gallon from last week, and more than offsets the gains the c-store industry saw a week ago.
The year to date retail fuels margin average across the US remains at $0.172 per gallon, while the six week average dropped to $0.166 per gallon. The same day last year retail fuel margins were $0.112 gallon.
In 2013, we saw a three week consecutive margin drop at this time, bottoming out at $0.084 per gallon on February 7, 2013. Let’s hope we don’t repeat that trend this year.
by John Keller | Jan 28, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software
The PriceAdvantage team is pleased to announce that J & H Oil has joined the PriceAdvantage family. J & H Oil is running PriceAdvantage in the cloud, a configuration that has become quite popular with our customers over the past 12 months. The cloud configuration, also known as “Software as a Service”, frees up company IT resources because the server maintenance responsibility rests with the PriceAdvantage team.
J & H Oil is a family owned and operated company running 36 company operated convenience stores in West Michigan. J & H Oil had a rigorous evaluation process for their fuels pricing solution, including a pilot of running PriceAdvantage in the real world. J & H Oil found PriceAdvantage to be the best way to improve the speed at which they collect competitor information, and to make sure all price changes are accurate. J & H Oil also found the SNAP Analytics in PriceAdvantage to be quite valuable, so they elected to include that in their implementation.
We at PriceAdvantage look forward to a strong and long-term partnership with J & H Oil – welcome to the family!
by John Keller | Jan 24, 2014 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
OPIS reported the average retail fuel margin across the United States increased $0.01 per gallon this week to $0.192 per gallon. The one cent gain erased the loss of last week. Average year to date retail fuel margins continued to rise, hitting a mark of $0.170 per gallon. The six week retail fuel margin average held steady at $0.173 per gallon.
Last year on the equivalent of this date, average retail fuel margins were $0.02 cents per gallon lower, at $0.15 per gallon.
Hopefully 2014 won’t see the dramatic retail fuel margin drops we saw in 2013, when the average retail fuel margin dropped to $0.102 per gallon over the course of the equivalent next four weeks.
by John Keller | Jan 20, 2014 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
The latest OPIS report shows the average retail fuel margin across the US dipped slightly this week to $0.182 per gallon, down $0.011 from last week. The average retail fuel margin across the US is still the highest since 12/20/2013.
So far this quarter the average retail fuel margin has been $0.162 per gallon. The six week average is $0.173 per gallon.
Average retail fuel margin levels remain slightly higher than this time last year, when the average retail fuel margin across the US was $0.171 per gallon. This time in 2013 retail fuel margins dropped significantly to the $0.08 – $ $0.12 range until March, when average retail fuel margins jumped to the $0.20 – $0.26 range.
by John Keller | Jan 14, 2014 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
The OPIS report for January 10, 2014 shows a $0.081 average retail fuel margin increase from the previous week, the largest weekly increase since December 6, 2013. Retail fuel margins across the US now stand at $0.193 per gallon.
Average retail fuel margins year to date and quarter to date now stand at $0.153. The six week average is $0.178.
The current retail fuel margin is nearly $0.05 per gallon higher than this time last year, when the average retail fuel margin was $0.146 per gallon. In 2013 the Q1 retail fuel margin average finished at $0.159 per gallon.
by John Keller | Jan 14, 2014 | Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software, PriceAdvantage
The PriceAdvantage team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of version 2013.3. This version is a result of numerous feature requests from our customers.
Here are a few highlights of this new release.
- Display competitor survey prices based on the most reliable source on a store by store basis. In some cases the store may reflect the most accurate competitor prices using OPIS alone, while in other cases it may be best to display both OPIS and PriceAdvantage survey prices side by side for validation. You decide which source is best for which store.
- The new Volume Correlation report shows the trend of fuel volumes and prices with a configurable set of non-fuel metric options imported from PDI. This report helps determine the market profile of each store and the elasticity between fuels and in-store merchandise product categories such as food.
- The new Margin Percentage report shows calculated price with fuel volumes, and margin as percentage of price. This allows you to see side by side margins expressed as both cents per gallon and percentage of price, bridging the gap between traditional fuel pricing teams focused on retail fuels, and marketing groups who typically focus on non-fuel product categories.
- PriceAdvantage Web has a new menu navigation system, as well as analysis views, scheduled price changes, and a map view showing all stores and all competitors.
PriceAdvantage customers can contact their sales representatives to discuss upgrade options. Work is already well underway for version 2014.1 – stay tuned for more exciting capabilities, developed in close partnership with all our customers. We couldn’t do it without you!
by John Keller | Jan 3, 2014 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
OPIS reported that retail fuel margin averages across the US dropped again this week. The average US retail fuel margin stands at $0.112 per gallon, dropping $0.028 per gallon since last week. The combined decrease over the past two weeks is $0.109 per gallon.
The six week average is $0.167 per gallon, down $0.005 from last week. The equivalent day in 2013 had retail fuel margin averages at $0.126 per gallon. After retail fuel margins bounced along the floor in January and February, March 2013 brought some welcome relief, and by the end of 2013 Q1, retail fuel margins jumped to $0.212 per gallon. We can only hope we’ll see a rise like that again this year.
by John Keller | Jan 3, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Software, Industry News
The Savannah Morning News awarded The Parker Companies “Entrepreneur of the Year”. The award is based on criteria such as growth and success, as well as philanthropy and community involvement.
Greg Parker, CEO of Parker’s Convenience Stores, attributed the company’s success on the idea that they worship data, and that they use technology in a way that other companies don’t.
A significant part of the data and technology that Mr. Parker is referring is the Parker’s PriceAdvantage implementation that includes PDI, VeriFone POS, GasBuddy OpenStore, and Skyline electronic price signs. “I’m looking for every single gallon of gas I can sell,” he said. “There is no way I’m going to let a competitor get up on me. We’re going to be the low price leader.”
Parker’s plans to open their 35th store next month, with 17 more stores in the pipeline.
The PriceAdvantage team would like to congratulate Parker’s on their ongoing success and rapidly accumulating list of awards. We look forward to our ongoing close relationship and our mutual success.
by John Keller | Jan 3, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Strategy
The PriceAdvantage team would like to congratulate Flyers Energy LLC on their recent expansion. Flyers Energy acquired the assets of Allied Washoe Petroleum, based in Reno Nevada.
Flyers Energy has been a PriceAdvantage customer since 2012 as part of their retail fuel software solution that includes PDI and VeriFone as components of their closed loop fuel pricing strategies. Flyers Energy selected PriceAdvantage to improve pricing consistency, communication with stores, and automated price change confirmation.
“PriceAdvantage allows us to automate our fuel pricing process while aligning our pricing strategy and improving communications across our network of sites,” said Tom DiMercurio, Director of Accounting at Flyers Energy. “Our goal is to leverage technology to reduce operating expenses and to provide a means of tracking the implementation of price changes through the whole process. PriceAdvantage is allowing us to accomplish both of these objectives.”
by John Keller | Dec 30, 2013 | Industry News
The latest OPIS report shows that average retail fuel margins across the US took a big hit this week, dropping $0.081 per gallon to an average of $0.140 per gallon.
That is the lowest retail fuel margin since November 29. The year to date average for 2013 finishes at $0.190 per gallon. The Q4 average finishes at $0.200, and the six week average is $0.172. On this same week last year, the average was $0.132 per gallon.
