Thanks For Buying Our Gas, Suckers!!

I was going to see if I could make it through an entire weekend without blogging. I had almost made it until I saw a news story I could not resist. No, I am not talking about Pam Anderson marrying Kid Rock or that fact that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s new kid is going to be done by the wax museum. While those stories certainly meet my criteria for a post, the story I found is a little heavier.

One of the nation’s largest gasoline retailers released their second quarter financial figures a few days ago. It was the largest quarter they have experienced in almost 130 years of existence. Embarrassingly, investors and Wall Street were disappointed in the earnings as they actually expected them to be HIGHER.

It was my understanding that the increase in gas prices was due to supply issues, production issues, etc. Now I only took one economics course in college, (and it ended up costing me money) but it would lead me to believe that the steep increase in fuel is to offset the new financial demands for oil manufacturers. How is it then that oil companies are experiencing their biggest profits ever when we are paying for their increase in costs? Something doesn’t add up and I’m not that smart.

The whole thing is almost unbelievable. Having a background in PR, I know you have to update your investors as well as your board, but has anyone in the gas industry ever heard of humility? If I owned a company and experienced an 18% increase in profits after committing highway robbery, I would probably be a little more low key about my successes. When the world hates you do you really want to stand on the tallest building and shout about how well you are doing?

It’s as bad as taking candy from a baby…then writing the baby’s parents about how great the candy tasted.