TRAINING CLASSES!!

All classes held at NJGCA HQ -- 4900 Route 33 West, Wall Township, NJ 07753

                                                                                                                                                               

 CLASSIFIEDS! -- FOR SALE & HELP WANTED ADS

FOR SALE:

Business For Sale: Monmouth County gas station and repair shop in business since 2001 is for sale. Owner is relocating out of state and is interested in selling business and equipment. Owner is open to limited financing. Business has a strong 10 year lease. The building has two repair bays and the gas pumps are leased to a large independent tenant. Repair shop business currently employs a Manager and two full-time Technicians. For inquiries and more info, please call Mark at 908-670-7798.

Business established in 1980. Fully equipped repair shop with 5 lifts including an alignment rack with a 2-year-old Hunter Hawkeye alignment machine. New Hunter tire machine & wheel balancer. AAA aproved and very busy.

Pumping over 1,000,000 gallons per year. 100x300 lot with plenty of parking. Excellent location!!! Call Jim @ 201-851-3084.

         

                                                                                                                                                                         

NEWS AROUND THE STATE: THE NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

09/19/2017:
TX and FL Retailers Face Gouging Lawsuits Post-Hurricane
The first lawsuits have been filed against gasoline retailers in TX over alleged hurricane-related price gouging. After receiving more than 3,300 price-gouging complaints related to Hurricane Harvey, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed lawsuits against two fuel retailers. Texas law forbids businesses from charging exorbitant prices for necessities such as gasoline during a declared disaster. One of the retailers charged is Bains Brothers LLC, Dallas, which owns three Texaco-branded sites in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. According to the attorney general’s lawsuit, the retailer was selling regular-grade gasoline for $2.29 per gallon on Aug. 30, 2017, five days after Hurricane Harvey’s landfall.  Within less than 24 hours, two of Bains Brothers’ stations allegedly raised their price for regular to $6.99 per gallon.  The fuel price increased so quickly that the retailer is said to have removed the numbers from one side of the price sign, leaving the other side with a price much lower than what was being charged at the pump, according to the complaint.  One customer saw an advertised price of $3.29 per gallon but was allegedly charged $6.99 per gallon at the pump.  Another customer alleged that the fuel price increased 40¢ per gallon during the fill-up. The second fuel retailer being sued is Encinal Fuel LLC, which owns a Chevron-branded site in Encinal, TX outside of Laredo.  According to the attorney general’s lawsuit, the retailer allegedly charged $8.99 and $9.99 per gallon for regular-grade gasoline on Aug. 31, six days after Harvey’s landfall. Defendants found guilty of price gouging face civil penalties up to $20,000 per violation, with extra fines up to $250,000 for incidents involving a consumer who is 65 years or older. Meanwhile in Florida, the office of Attorney General Kim Bondi has received more than 10,000 complaints about price gouging after Hurricane Irma, for everything from fuel to ice and lodging, the Orlando Sentinel reported. According to Florida law, it is illegal for retailers to raise prices during a state of emergency to increase profits. They can, however, raise prices if their wholesale costs increase.
 
09/19/2017:
Gas Stations Waiting Longer to Convert to EMV
While other retailers have to switch to EMV payments next month (October 2017), gas stations have an extension until October 1, 2020 because of additional challenges in this industry. “There isn’t a lot of movement right now due to the deadline delay and relatively low levels of fraud occurring at the pump. There’s a wait-and-see mentality” said Marci Gagnon, VP of business development and operations at AVATAS Payment Solutions. “It’s really not a lot of time when you consider all the steps and processes it takes to implement new technologies.”  The bulk of gas stations are not owned by major oil companies, so many are waiting until the bigger chains have converted to EMV payments before addressing their smaller chains or single location. But there is some movement in this channel to upgrade to EMV.  This summer, Gilbarco Veeder-Root recorded the first EMV gas pump transaction and reached an agreement with retailers to update pumps for EMV payments. Other retailers are waiting to make multiple updates at the same time to hold expenses to a minimum. For example, gas stations might want to incorporate mobile wallet payments along with EMV.  Fraud rates at the pump have stayed consistently low -- around 1.3% of total U.S. payment fraud -- which, contrasted with the high cost of updating, has lulled retailers into a wait-and-see mentality.
 
09/19/2017:
How ‘Bodega’ Got It Wrong
The popularity of the bodega in urban life has never been brought more sharply into focus as when two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs unveiled a new concept, Bodega, claiming to have built a better corner store that makes the existing business model obsolete. It is shaping up to be one of the worst marketing mis-calculations of recent times, if the social-media response is any indication. The startup by two former Google employees is off to a bad start, at least in terms of public relations. The concept is named after the iconic, local corner stores and convenience stores in New York and other urban markets. A write-up in Fast Company about the concept provided some high-profile exposure for Bodega, and the story said the venture has the goal of putting mom-and-pop store owners out of business. That has led to a major backlash on social media. It is a story about Silicon Valley hubris vs. the livelihoods of independent mom-and-pop retailers (and the cats that populate the bodegas that have themselves become so iconic that they have inspired an Instagram account). Will this upstart startup succeed in replacing the beloved bodegas -- and their furry ‘employees’ -- with a better mousetrap? Click above to read more of the story.
 
09/18/2017:
What the Christie Administration just decided on whether to raise your gas tax
Gov. Chris Christie's administration will not raise the tax rate on gasoline in NJ at the start of October, an indication that the nearly year-old 23¢ gas tax hike is meeting expectations. Lawmakers hiked the tax on gas last year for the first time in 28 years to raise new money for state's fraying infrastructure network. That law, which raised gas prices in NJ by 23¢ per gallon overnight in November, also requires state officials revisit the tax rate each Oct. 1 to ensure it is drumming up enough revenue for transportation projects. The state's online rate schedule for the Petroleum Products Gross Receipts Tax indicates the tax rate will not change. A spokesman for the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The 23¢ surcharge is projected to generate about $1.23 billion annually to finance an eight-year, $16 billion transportation program. The law raising the gasoline tax 23¢ allows the state Treasurer to establish a new tax rate on Oct. 1 each year. The gas tax law effectively freezes the amount of money the state expects to collect from the tax to an amount based on the hypothetical impact of the new tax on past consumption. The state treasurer can adjust the tax rate up or down each year. The law also allows for a smoothing effect, so if the tax comes up short one year, drivers will have to make up for it in the next. And if the state collects too much one year, drivers will get a discount the following year.
 
09/18/2017:
Post-Harvey Havoc for Octane Eases, but Provides Sneak Preview of Ultimate Future
What might oil markets look like when more turbo-charged vehicles require high-octane fuel to reach tougher CAFE standards? Some observers believe that the refinery downtime that came after Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc in Corpus Christi, Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, might provide a sneak preview of the chaos that could ensue if storms hit U.S. refineries five or 10 years from now. The product that saw the greatest initial paroxysm in price was premium unleaded gasoline.  Before Harvey was taken seriously, Gulf Coast 93 octane fetched a price of about $1.63/gal.  Some 10 days later, sales of the same grade were consummated at $2.22/gal, an increase of more than 36%. Despite the limits of Harvey’s geographic route, the storm also had a major impact on East Coast premium gas. Before Harvey, the typical spread between 87 and 93 octane gas in New York Harbor was 15¢/gal. By Aug. 31, the premium spread was at 31¢/gal. Why was there such a surge in octane? OPIS talked to numerous refining experts and came up with multiple factors behind the premium value surge.  To learn more, click the link above to finish reading the article.

                                                                                                                                                                 

MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE BOARD:

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TMP Energy Solutions

Another Way to Save on Your Energy Bills

We have had a number of NJGCA members successfully reduce their rate per kWh signing up through our energy saving program. We know it's difficult to collect 12 months worth of previous electric bills to get an "accurate" analysis when comparing a variable rate to a fixed rate, but we now have another option available. 

This new solution is a power purchase option; the other program is still in full force and has saved members thousands of dollars. If you sign up for the power purchase option, you will be grouped with other NJGCA members until the minimum kW demand is acquired. By pooling the member's usage together, you will be able to take advantage, as large energy users do, and receive a lower kWh rate.

Each member will receive their own contract. Each member is responsible to sign and return the agreement the day it is received in order to secure the price for their group.

Please do your due diligence, so when you receive the proposal and the agreement you will be able to make an intelligent decision.

If by chance, you still want us to assess you bills, to give you a price to compare, we will require 12 months of your most recent utility bills.

There are no bills required, but we would still like to have one bill per meter on file to check account #'s, meter #'s  service addresses and other pertinent information incase there is a problem.

The term of the agreement is for 12 months. During this term period, you will have price protection against any energy price increases along with a low fixed kWh rate.

If you are interested in becoming part of this power purchase option, please contact Greg Cannon at the NJGCA.

Remember when you sign up your energy through the NJGCA Energy Program, TMP makes a considerable donation to the NJGCA Scholarship Fund through their proceeds. This has no affect on your rate, and costs you nothing out of pocket.

We hope to help hundreds of NJGCA members reduce their utility costs by participating in this and our other cost reduction programs.  Our purpose, in the endeavor, is to help NJGCA members lower their energy costs while supporting the NJGCA Scholarship Fund. 

Contact GREG CANNON at 732-256-9646 or email Greg at greg@njgca.org. Mention that you are interested in saving money on your energy bills. NJGCA & TMP Energy Solutions will handle all the rest.