Gas station owners getting slammed too

The bad news for consumers: Fewer gas stations further limits choices and competition, and that pushes up prices.

Some motorists said they were surprised to hear that station owners were struggling.

"That just tells me that the oil companies are grabbing all of the profits," said Tanya Rutter, a personal trainer who lives in Manhattan Beach and drives an 18-year-old Datsun 240Z.

On Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he would push for a tax on record-high oil-company profits like those being collected by Exxon Mobil Corp.

"We'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills," Obama said.

Gas retailers are being hurt by several forces, including lower sales, higher credit card fees and fuel expenses, that are directly tied to this year's dramatic rise in the price of oil.

In Van der Valk's case, fuel sales have fallen as much as 10% as customers cut back on driving. The lost volume means fewer customers flow through the convenience store to buy coffee, sodas and other money-making items.

With each price increase, more people use credit cards to buy gas, taking a bigger bite out of station profits. A dealer typically pays a 10-cent transaction fee plus 2% to 2.5% of the total fuel sale for each customer.

The cash crunch is made worse by the soaring cost of buying fuel. Over the weekend, Van der Valk paid $38,000 for 8,700 gallons of regular gas and diesel, up from about $22,000 at the beginning of the year.

It's a strain on Van der Valk and his two grown sons, who work at the stations. Because his sons are also skipping paychecks, he said, "three families are living off of savings now."

Some distributors have started requiring station operators to pay for fuel upon delivery or on a shortened billing cycle. Tim Rogers, owner of Torrance-based Tower Energy Group, said a growing number of his gas station customers were ordering half loads of fuel despite the risk of running dry.

Tower, which supplies fuel to more than 160 Valero, 76 and Tower gas stations in Western states, has seen its inventory costs double. Rogers said he had asked bankers to raise his company's credit limit.

Retailers say they are having trouble passing on the full force of higher costs to their customers -- and doing so risks worsening the cycle by scaring off drivers and further reducing store traffic.