The View of the War From a Florida Gas Station

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“Can you just explain what it is you're about to do?”

I'm gonna raise the gas price. From New York Times, I'm Michael Barrow. This is the daily. So we got to go into the school manager menu. I'm going to raise the gas price.

From New York Times, I'm Michael Barrow. This is the daily. So we got to go into the school manager menu. And fuel price configuration. You're going to go from 449 on my premium to 469.

For the past four weeks, gas stations across the United States have become a kind of microcosm of the wars domestic impact. It's there. At thousands of pumps and cash registers, that a test of wheels is playing out in real time. I just got to download the fuel prices to my pumps and that's that price increase. Between gas station managers, deciding day after day, just how much to charge for a gallon of gas.

And already cashstrap consumers deciding just how much pain they're willing to endure.

“I mean, does any part of you just feel like really bad that you have to do that?”

Yeah, yeah, I feel bad. I mean, it's an necessity. I have to. But yeah, I feel bad. I kind of hurt.

Today, the view of this war from a neighborhood gas station in Jacksonville, Florida. It's Friday, March 27th. Okay, I think this is it. Yeah, here we go. Oh, getting there.

Hey, Florida, Florida drivers. Last week, daily producer Ana Foley and I headed to suburban Jacksonville to talk to a gas station manager named Cam Judy. Hey, guys. What's going on?

Michael, Camaro, Camaro nice to meet you. Now, why this station and this manager? We can come on back. Okay. Camaro is a quickly vanishing business in this country and independently owned gas station.

You got some serious little Debbie and cat. Yeah, right there, right from front staring at me across the way. All day was bring my name. Honey buns. Meaning that Cam and Cam alone sets the price.

I've never been in the guts of the cashiers.

The cashiers winged at the store. We met him on a Tuesday when regular unleaded gas at his station. Cost 3.79 a gallon about 40% higher than before the war started. Cam was manning the cash register of the station's convenience store. And it's inside this store.

On a residential street across from an elementary school, where you really see how intimately he's woven himself into this community. What's up, Rick? Mr. Lee. Hey, Lewis. Yeah, you're good, brother.

Are you on a first name basis for life insurance? Yeah, after eight years, almost nine years. This July, I've got a lot of regulars that come in here.

“I think Cam took over the business about a decade ago from his father,”

who started buying convenience stores after he immigrated to the US from Syria by way of Guatemala. This gas station in particular, he bought right around the time my sister was born. I believe, seems to be a trend. He has a kid. He has a gas station. He has a kid. He has a guy. I don't know. And Cam grew up watching his father really become the unofficial mayor of this neighborhood.

He always goes back to the show. Everybody loves Raymond. That's his name. Raymond.

So even growing up as a kid, we couldn't go out to eat without running into somebody that he knew from one of the stores. A waiter, somebody in the back cooking our food and the kitchen, somebody waiting in line for their coffee. He knows everybody. And it went beyond just knowing everybody. His father's customers were treated as an extension of the duty family.

When someone would come in here and tell me, like, you know, your dad, like, I was, I was, my power was off.

And he, he loaned me the money. I needed to get the electricity back on. You know, and stuff like that is like, Dad, did you really do that? I was like, of course I did. They've been coming to my store for 10, 15 years.

“So for Cam, this was really the only way he knew to run a business.”

These regular customers that I get in here, I mean, I've known them now for eight years. That's a longer time than I've known my kids. I only got a four year old. So some of these people, they've been around for my wife's pregnancies. I had several regular customers when they found out my wife was pregnant. They brought me boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of diapers.

Like, it's just really cool. I don't think a lot of people get to experience that. Where a customer comes to your business almost every single day, sometimes up to six times a day, and become a huge part of your life, they really do. And just to give you an example, when Cam catches local students shoplifting,

which happens with some frequency, he never calls the police. He tells somebody else.

I know their PE coach. He comes in here every day. So I tell him, I show him a picture of the kid on my camera and he makes them run laps. Or please add in here. That's the local justice. I love it.

So when the war broke out a few weeks ago, right before the war,

“I remember we were sitting at 279 for a long time.”

And Cam realized he was going to have to raise gas prices.

So from 279 to 299 to 309, over and over, we went up almost 20 cents in 48 hours.

And over again, my gosh, it's been almost every day. He wasn't like repeatedly raising gas prices on strangers. He was raising prices on people. He really cares about people who he knows are already stretched very thin. I hope they understand that I'm not pricing my gas to make a quick buck.

I'm pricing my gas how I need to price it in order to stay afloat. And just to explain how this works, this is actually not making Cam more money. My distributor of fuel is charging me per gallon. And then I have to account for if they're going to charge me to get it to the gas station. So the trucking fees to the store itself.

And then we also have to account for the different fees that are associated with the customer purchasing gas. The credit card companies and debit card companies. For Cam, the margins on gas are actually pretty slow. I mean, there's really such a small amount of profit to be made per gallon for a business like mine. I mean, I'm talking maybe 10 to 15 cents per gallon max for my store.

His pumps hold about 8,000 gallons, which usually lasts a couple of weeks. And so 10 cents of profit on that is about $800. Which is a surprisingly small amount of profit for a gas station to make on gas.

“How did you think about this question of how much you could increase the price of the pump knowing your customer?”

How did you balance all that? I mean, my regular customers, they're pretty loyal. I liked to think that they would choose my store over a big corporate own gas station. I had a big chain gas station franchise like that just because it's my store. Can I consider the customer when I'm making these gas prices? I'm not really because as much as I love my regular customers, I can't take a loss per gallon.

I can't, it would be difficult to even figure out what my break even number would be. You know, got at least make a couple cents off of each gallon or there's really no point in selling gas. I could take the gas price of that big chain gas station up the road. That's priced at $3.99 today. I could say, well, I'm independently owned. I need to have a bigger profit margin and price mine for 409. I could do that. You know, there's no, there's no problem with me doing that.

I know gas station owners that do do that. They go 10 cents over their nearest big corporate gas station just so they can make a little bit more of a profit margin. I choose not to, specifically because of the relationship I had with my regular customers. I would love for this to be over next week and I go back to $2.99 a gallon. That'd be awesome. I hope beyond hope that it is temporary and it does not last long. But yeah, I do worry about the longevity of these high prices. It would be a strain on a lot of people, including myself included.

Most of his rivals were at $3.99 a gallon for regular.

He had been holding steady at $3.79. He looks out at the pumps. I don't like to do it when customers are pumping gas and he makes the call to waste the prices. So I'm going to raise it from $3.79 to $3.99. That's a big jump. It is a big jump. So if I go outside right now, even on that big sign, big sign is happening right now too.

And it's almost instant. We'll be right back. The near times app has all the stuff that you may not have seen. I can immediately navigate to something that matches what I'm feeling. The way the tabs are at the top with all of the different sections.

It's just easier to navigate that way. There is something for everyone. Those personalized page, the UTEP. That one's my favorite. I can also save my articles easily in this area. Right under the buy line, it says click here if you like to listen to this article. I like that the cooking tab on top is really easily accessible.

“So I'm on my way home and I'm just thinking, oh, what am I going to make for dinner?”

I'll just quickly go on to cooking and say, oh, I've got this in my pantry. I'm going to try also these recipes I see in here. I owe the games always. Don't want to many. Don't want to work. I love how much content it exposed me to.

Things that I never would've thought to turn to a news app for.

This app is essential. New York Times app, all of the times, all in one place. Download it now at nytimes.com/app. Morning, Ken. Morning.

It's cold. It's cold for Florida. Yes, it is. That's right. The next morning, just before 7 a.m.

Anna and I returned to the gas station to watch Cam open it up for the day. It's going to turn the lights on to the gas pumps on and we're open for business. Those were the pumps?

The pumps, yeah. We wanted to understand just how much this relentless increase in gas prices, including Cam's most recent hike, or hurting his customers. So this is $3.99 a day.

“Do you think that people are going to notice the 20 cent increases today?”

Definitely. Oh, yeah. 37.99. It's a big jump. And yeah, we'll definitely get some people in here

that are 20 cent cheaper yesterday. What happened, Cam? Over at the pumps. If you want to talk about gas prices, we'll start crossing now, huh?

People did not hold back. If Anna, hey, Anna, hey. Oh, my God. It's awful. It's just going to affect so many people.

I mean, it's really so sad, because people are already struggling. And this was just so unnecessary. It's like you're paying double meld in which it was paying a couple of weeks ago.

People lash on thick and con.

“They have a tough time with these gas prices.”

They are $100.98. That's a very expensive amount of gas.

I've never been this bad, man.

Most people didn't stick around for a very long conversation. They got back in their car. They told us they had a good work. But among those who really talked to us, or became clear was just how my newly,

they could describe gas prices impact on their finances. And how these far higher prices have become a kind of referendum. A referendum on the war in Iran, on President Trump, himself,

and really on the entire promise of America. We're talking to people about gas prices. If you have thoughts. Oh. I've seen them two something out there.

Poor. Yeah. We met a guy named Andrew, who, like many people in Jacksonville, is a veteran.

The region is a major military hub. I mean, I just got out of the military about a year ago. So now I'm on a fixed income type stuff. So seeing the gas prices go up, really kind of understand a little bit.

Are you in Iraq or Afghanistan? Jordan Afghanistan area. Okay. And once I saw that they cut up the street. Oh, right.

There go the gas prices. When you fill your car, what is the actual cost now? 50 bucks.

30.

“So where has that come from in that pie chart?”

You might have come from our grocery budget. Because like everything else is like bills. Can't skip bills. I mean, sometimes what if we need to. We'll skip a bill.

But we'll just go right back to it. But usually the allotment comes from our grocery bills. And does it change how you eat? Yeah. Can you give me an example?

Like we've been going to the food banks every now and then. Which help out. I like those. A lot of local churches do help out. So that's pretty nice.

I have three kids.

So I make sure that they eat first.

Usually we'll get all their food first. And then my wife and I will be like, okay, we have this much left. Let's get us some dinners. So like there's been nice for her and I don't need.

And we'll just let them eat. But we're cool with that because like with our kids eat, we're fine. That's really meaningful sacrifice. I mean, they come first. I mean, we're fine.

We can handle it.

“But I think, I give it a month before all this levels off, maybe.”

You hope. I hope. Yeah. We just need to pull out. Just not be there and just let the straight open out.

Like it's not our war. It's not our war. It's not our war.

Well, thank you for spending time with us.

And thank you for your service. I appreciate it. Andrew is literally skipping meals because of this war. But we also met somebody who's financial pain is just as immediate. But who sees the war and Trump's rational for it in a totally different light.

We're hanging out with Cam to talk about gas prices. You let us spend the day with him. What's your name? William. And what are you for work?

I only truck and company. Whoa, so you, this is important. So you're involved in the trucking business at a time when gas is four dollars a gallon. Well, diesel's five. In some states, we're paying six to seven dollars.

So a lot of money's coming out of your pocket. Well, you've puffed 250 gallons every time we fill up. Yeah. So do the math.

It's costing anywhere between 1,200 to 1,600 dollars for a tank of fuel now.

Wow. And then the race has not gone up. So you'd be a strong candidate for being very upset about this war. I would be, yeah. But I think that it's worth it.

I'm a Trumpster. But let me tell you, I have some issues with him at the moment. But I still support what we're doing in our room because I've been watching it all my life. I'm 70 years old. So I support it for the people of our room.

If I were going to endorse the war, there would be simply to free the Iranian people from this ridiculous regime. What happens after that? Who knows? Did they have a nuclear weapon?

Why wouldn't they? So I don't know what drove his decision to do this. But I felt like it was very serious. So you have faith that if the President has determined that the United States should be involved in a war against Iran,

that he knows something and he's made this decision wisely.

“I truly believe that, yes, he is not one to just go out and”

I don't think to just start this up for, you know, to hide the FC files or whatever. So that's all I know. That's all I can tell you. So if the war is justified, is the gas price increase a small price to pay? Or does it feel like a big price to pay anything?

I don't think it's a big price to pay. I do worry about the commercial end of it. If there's no assistance, if there's no way to, I mean, a lot of these smaller trucking companies will be able to understand how many have gone out of business from the rate wars, okay?

Now the ones that survived that have to pay the gas prices. Right, it'll kick them right over the edge. So I am concerned about that. Hopefully won't last that long. I think the war over there is going to last longer than four weeks.

You know, but you can afford these gas prices. Yeah, I can afford it, yeah. I don't like it, but I can afford it. Thank you for your time. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Good luck to you guys. So despite these higher prices, William is standing by the president for now. But there's a whole group of people from the promise of lower prices, including lower gas prices, was their primary reason for voting for Trump.

So now every trip to the gas pump feels like a betrayal. We're talking about gas prices. Unbelievable. Especially when we thought we were about to get those lower gas prices, I was happy for a couple weeks when I was two, that was like, "Ah, now it's hard."

Including a woman who goes by Sean and is a licensed medicare agent. That makes 26 dollars an hour. Now you tell me why should it be hard for me to put gas in the car. So you just put six bucks a. Six dollars.

Why so little? Because it was expensive. That was expensive. It is hard right now. That's what I'm trying to tell you, like, on top of grocery, on top of rent.

Everyone. Now it's talking about gas. I have to ride to work. I have grandchildren. I have two elderly parents that live in my home.

One of them who has stage 5 kidney disease. Okay. And I just took him to dialysis. So even with incomes, it's going like this. You're down the drain.

Down the drain. You said you were excited for $2. Like, "Oh my God, I was like, we are here."

“And was that something you heard from the president and his campaigns?”

Was that where you heard that from? Trump said that we would want to have a lower gas. That was one of the things that he promised. And unfortunately, I voted for him. As a black woman, I voted for this man.

Thinking that, "All right, economy is going to be amazing under him." Yeah.

And now I wish I never did that.

Are you mad that he started this war and raised? Yeah. Because to me now, it's not even ever how people know about money. I know we are in America. We think we're safe, but we are casualties of war.

We have to start speaking out against what's going on over there. Because we will be there if we don't stand up for them. You're upset. I'm upset. I'm upset.

Do you feel like you were kind of hoodwinked? Yes, I was hoodwinked. This man talked about. We were going to be great again. And I did kind of see that in my eyes.

Like, we were not the American that we used to be. So, okay, we have this man coming through.

And he's bold and he's powerful.

He'd pump me up off of. I'm a good man. But then he really was a wolf. It seems clothing. Mm.

And got everything out of what? I got your vote. And now I'm just going to tear it down. It's all about me and my money and my big rich friends. So I'm upset.

I made the wrong vote. Mm. And I need everybody to understand what we're going through. Like, stop. We are not going to beach anymore.

Take your shades off. Do you not be hit? And it was called President Trump. Me got to get up. I'm a proud American.

Very, very proud American. And right today, I'm a sad American. I'm not a real proud. I'm not real proud of us. Okay.

Well. Thank you for sharing. Take care. So I think we're wrapping up. Cam are reporting at the gas station.

And I wonder if you can forecast a little bit of the next week and whether you think you're going to have to keep raising prices. What would it take for you to lower them? I don't see lowering happening anytime soon. Usually when it's quick to rise like this,

it's slower to lower. I don't think it's going to take a week for me to have to raise it. Honestly, above $3.99. As I was driving into work today, I passed my gas station charging 405 for credit card purchases on gasoline.

So regular, regular. And it was an independent as well. Same as mine. Probably over the weekend. I'll probably have to go above $4.

As far as going well beyond $4. I could see it capping around 459. That's my estimated price cap.

“I believe how you come up with that number.”

That's probably the highest that I remember ever putting my gas prices at. I hope it doesn't get to 459. I hope it doesn't go above 409. But as unpredictable as everything is and what's going on, you just never know.

Well, thank you again. Thank you guys. All the time of youth. Absolutely. I appreciate you all coming out here and talking to me about this.

Until next time, you're served. We'll do a back.

Here's what else you need tonight.

But they now have the chance that is around, who permanently abandoned their nuclear ambitions and to join a new path forward. We'll see if they want to do it. On Thursday, President Trump sought to ratchet a pressure on Iran to enter into diplomatic negotiations to end the war.

They don't. With a worse nightmare. And the meantime, we'll just keep blowing them away, unappeated, unstopped.

“Trump's latest threat came as Israel claimed it had killed a key Iranian naval commander”

who had led Iran's effort to close the straight of our moves.

Meanwhile, with Congress unwilling to end the crisis at the country's airports,

“the President said he would sign an emergency order”

to begin paying airport security agents

who have gone without their pay for weeks.

“The money is expected to come from funds previously approved”

for the Department of Homeland Security,

which has been shut down by Democrats since late last month.

“Today's episode was produced by Anna Foley and Caitlin O'Keefe.”

It was edited by Devon Taylor, contains music by Dan Powell, Diane Wong, Alicia Blayetube, Marion Lazzano, and Chelsea Daniel. Our theme music is by Wonderley. This episode was engineered by Alyssa Moxley.

That's it for the Daily. I'm Macaboran. See you on Sunday. [MUSIC PLAYING]