August 19, 2011

Dear NJGCA Member:

Here's what you'll find in this edition of the NJGCA Road Warrior, and thank you for reading:

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE: GREETINGS & SAL-UTATIONS!
•Flash Robs Devastate Businesses, Market Conditions, and ETEP Training

NEWS AROUND THE STATE
•Poor economic news plunges stock market; crude prices drop
•Christie, Cuomo likely to support smaller Port Authority toll hike
•Agency downgrades Garden State’s credit rating
•Study shows that educators getting smaller raises

APPRAISAL SERVICE
•Regency Property Appraisers: Serving all your appraisal needs in NJ, NY, and beyond!

TRAINING CLASS SCHEDULE
•ETEP TRAINING CLASS SCHEDULE!

MEET THE FOLKS AT LIBERTY GAS
•Looking for a new brand for your station? Take a look at the opportunity below!

MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE
•TMP Energy Solutions: Another Way to Save On Your Energy Bills!

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE OR LEASE
•Interested in acquiring or leasing a property?  See below!

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM BELLOMO FUELS
•Serving New Jersey since 1910 -- Over 100 years of supplying gasoline retailers like YOU!

POLITICAL PARTICIPATON: THE NJGCA PAC
•Participate in the NJGCA PAC today and help us keep our Agenda rolling in Trenton!

THE MEMBER TOOL BOX
•On the NJGCA Homepage
•Know your Territory Manager!

 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE: GREETINGS & SAL-UTATIONS! 

FLASH ROBS DEVASTATE BUSINESSES, MARKET CONDITIONS AND ETEP TRAINING

If you pay attention to pop culture (and I don’t) you may have witnessed a relatively new phenomenon know as a ‘flash mob’ that has become increasingly more popular over the last few years.  

Initially started as a social experiment by journalists and social scientists, flash mobs have grown in popularity to proliferate nearly every facet of the media, the internet, and even commercials.  In fact, a well known cellular phone company filmed a commercial in the UK’s Liverpool Street Station and was particularly well received.  You can view the commercial by clicking HERE and get an idea of the kind of coordination and planning it takes to pull off such a feat.  

Flash mobs have become a kind of sensation; organizers have even pulled off patriot-themed and Christmas-themed flash mobs to amuse gawking spectators.  

Crowd-pleasing antics aside, some rectums (yes, I went there) have taken this seemingly harmless form of entertainment and turned it into a criminal act.  Know as 'flash robs', a coordinated and organized group of hooligans have taken flash mobs in an entirely different direction.  Using social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook, email, text messaging, and other forms of mass electronic communication to literally bum-rush small business owners and steal from them.  

In the typical situation, a few rectums will synchronize a group of 40 or 50 people to meet at a specific business and overwhelm the owner or attendants.  They will literally arrive en masse, clear out entire shelves and grab whatever isn’t nailed down and leave.  Since these mobs literally overpower workers and overpower any resistance, there is very little that can be done to stop the thieves from robbing you.  What’s worse, on-site cameras and recordings don’t do much to help the situation since most of the vandals aren’t hardened criminals with arrest records, police officers and law enforcement officials don’t have a means of tracking down the culprits. 

This phenomenon has created a nationwide alert for all convenience store and service station owners to be on the look out for such coordinated crimes.  And trust me, this is NOT some sort of a fluke situation or random.  You should take this seriously!

You may be thinking, ‘Sal, this is Jersey!  There are cops and people everywhere. This kind of stuff NEVER happens in populated areas, only in the boonies!’ --- and you’d be dead wrong!  As unpleasant as the memory is for me, I was a victim of a flash rob before the term was even coined. 

In the early 1990s, I was working at my Texaco station on a particular Saturday when 40 motorcycles pulled in for gas and all hell broke loose.  There were literally motorcycles all over the place being ridden by murky, unsavory looking folks.  At first I thought they were just there for gas, but it soon became apparent they weren’t.  That’s because as they were filling up their tanks, it became hard to keep track of who was paying and who wasn’t.  Many drove off while others trashed my front office, utterly destroyed my bathrooms, and walked off with whatever wasn’t nailed down or screwed into the walls.  They took everything; from wiper blades and air filters in my shop to my entire inventory of Texaco toy trucks that we sold out of my front office.  I was cleared out.  

In the matter of 15 minutes it was over and my place was a wreck.  I honestly didn’t know what to do, and even if I had, there were too many of them to do much about it.  Even if I could have realized and reacted sooner, how can one small business owner stop 40 bikers from trashing his place?  

This scary – and despicable – phenomenon is now being utilized against small business owners and even government officials.  For proof all you have to do is look at the protesters tearing apart London right now.  Unlike other types of riots and civil unrest, these dissenters are using the same kind of technology that I mentioned above to create havoc.  And just like the chaos in London, flash robs that violate your convenience store or service stations aren’t going to be identifiable by cameras or fingerprints.  

Shifting gears, the chaos flash robs create on Main Street isn’t much different the pandemonium taking place on Wall Street.  Since the S&P downgrade on August 5th, the market has spiraled out of control.  The price of gasoline dropped immediately after the announcement, but has slowly begun to climb as of last week, and then took another tumble today.   Normally the tried-n-tested laws of supply and demand govern the price of commodities like gasoline, but markets (and people) have become increasingly frightened over the state of the economy; there is a big question mark hanging over everything.  

This kind of uncertainty isn’t just affecting gasoline sales or energy markets – it’s affecting everything. If people are frightened and consumer confidence is down (and it IS down), they aren’t buying products.  If they don’t buy products and hold onto their disposable income, that means the businesses out there that sell products and services aren’t moving volume – and that affects YOU!  You are in the energy businesses – the liquid transportation energy business to be specific.  When goods and services aren’t being bought and sold, business activity falls and transportation of those goods and services declines.  That hurts your bottom line since those businesses (and their employees) aren’t patronizing your establishment.  Take that out to the tenth degree and it means energy consumption will fall – and so will your profits. 

What can you do to help insulate your business against such a tide?  Well one thing you can do is diversify your establishment to better serve customers.  We’ve recently heard from a number of members who are looking to do just that by transforming their repair shop through the Emission Technician Education Program (ETEP).

For those who are unfamiliar with the term, ETEP educational classes are designed to instruct shop mechanics on how to repair emission-related problems that are discovered during an emissions inspection.  If you aren’t an Emission Repair Facility (ERF) and employ an Emission Repair Technician (ERT), you are missing out on a golden opportunity to serve your patrons.  In fact, if you are currently a Private Inspection Facility (PIF), or just want the chance to repair vehicles which have failed emissions testing at the Central Inspection Facilities (CIF), becoming an ERF and employing an ERT makes all the sense in the world – and is a smart business investment!

The ETEP program is currently being offered by NJGCA to all members at a reduced rate.  We will also teach non- NJGCA members at the regular rate.  Full details are below, but to underscore key components of our program, we offer an 8 week course that meets once a week to teach you what you need to know in the shortest amount of time.  What’s more, if you have some ASE training, but are unsure of what you need to complete, we can help you navigate any administrative hurdles to get you certified.  In fact, we’ve taught this class for the NJ Department of Transportation and even a number of car dealerships have gone through our program to become certified. 

The value in terms of hours of instruction and the comprehensive nature of our program makes NJGCA ETEP training extremely competitive.  This is a service that we offer our members and you should take advantage of it. 

We will not be offering this class again until the spring, so if you are interested call Member Services Director Debbie Hill to sign up for our class.  Spots are limited, so don’t dilly-dally and have to wait to take the class in the spring.  

Thanks for listening - See you next week!

Regards,
Sal Risalvato
Executive Director

NEWS AROUND THE STATE

8/18/2011:
Poor economic news plunges stock market; crude prices drop 
The market fell on Thursday as investors’ sold off stocks amid growing panic over the weak economy and news reports creating fears of another recession.  Complicating the situation was news that 408,000 people applied for unemployment last week, the highest rate in four weeks.  Market experts believe that the weakened U.S. and European economies will not be able to take much more shock or the global economy could slip into another recession.  While many are looking to the Federal Reserve to help alleviate market conditions, many economists believe that the short term fixes that have been implemented over the last few years have not worked and will not work in to correct the current decline.  Meanwhile crude oil prices fell over $4.00 a barrel as traders feared that a weaker global economy could mean less demand for petroleum.

8/18/2011:
Christie, Cuomo likely to support smaller Port Authority toll hike
Gov. Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have stated that they would support a $1.50 toll hike next month on Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) bridges and tunnels.  The news comes after PANYNJ was seeking approval from both Governors for a $4.00 toll hike on all vehicles travelling during peak hours.  However, neither Governor would support the higher toll and fare hike, preferring a more modest increase.  PATH fares will also raise $1.00 over the next four years and an audit of the bi-state agency’s $7.2 billion budget will be performed.  PANYNJ says it needs these monies to fund a 10-year, $33 billion capital plan and infrastructure projects. New Jersey commuters make up 52% of toll payers, and with the rise in tolls, could mean your customers will have less disposable fund to patronize your business.  Click above to read the full article.

8/17/2011:
Agency downgrades Garden State’s credit rating
Citing unfunded pension and benefit liabilities, credit rating agency Fitch has lowered New Jersey's bond rating.  The agency stated that long term challenges in making the pension and benefit plan solvent while address other fiscal issues were the reason for the downgrade.  Despite attempts to persuade agency officials to improve the state’s credit rating in light recent reforms, the rating was dropped to AA- from AA.

8/17/2011:
Study shows that educators getting smaller raises
A new study states that budget conditions are slowing the rate of salary increases for New Jersey teachers.  With economic conditions putting strains on school board budgets, the average teacher raise for the 2011-12 school year has fallen to 2.1 percent. Experts state that pressure to cut costs to comply with the state’s new 2 percent cap on local property tax increases were partially the reason for the reduction. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES IN OUR “NEWS AROUND THE STATE” ARCHIVE 

MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE

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 require12 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 Phil Apruzzi 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 Phil Apruzzi at 973-376-0066 or email Phil at phil@njgca.org. Mention that you are interested in saving money on your energy bills. NJGCA & TMP Energy Solutions will handle all the rest.